Biomimicking of phyto-based super-hydrophobic surfaces towards prospective applications: a review

The self-cleaning mechanism attribute of organic surfaces is grabbing much attention in most of the commercially available commodities. Among organic surfaces, investigations on hydrophobic surfaces are much insightful and intriguing. The self-cleaning phenomena of hydrophobic surfaces are also known as the lotus effect. The effect uses the right combination of roughness and surface chemistry, which makes high contact angle of water droplets on a surface, making the quick roll-off of the water droplet from the surface, also picking up the dirt on its way. Thus, the plant leaves surface wetness has many ecological and physiological consequences, and its extent and duration can be affected by the leaf surface containing morphological structure, which contributes to the ecosystem interception rates. In this review, we have described the causes and behaviour of phyto-based hydrophobic surfaces. Furthermore, the applications of various phyto-based hydrophobic surfaces, either by implementing directly or by mimicking micro-/nanostructures of the surfaces, have been illustrated. Lastly, the methods for fabricating the artificial super-hydrophobic surface by mimicking the phyto-based natural hydrophobic surfaces, precisely by following the top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches, have been explained. This article could benefit scientists and researchers currently working on phyto-based super-hydrophobicity fields.Graphical abstract