Drop Impact Characteristics and Structure Effects of Hydrophobic Surfaces with Micro- and/or Nanoscaled Structures

We report the drop impact characteristics on four hydrophobic surfaces with different well-scale structures (smooth, nano, micro, and hierarchical micro/nano) and the effects of those structures on the behavior of water drops during impact. The specimens were fabricated using silicon wet etching, black silicon formation, or the combination of these methods. On the surfaces, the microstructures form obstacles to drop spreading and retracting, the nanostructures give extreme water-repellency, and the hierarchical micro/nanostructures facilitate drop fragmentation. The maximum spreading factor (D*(max)) differed among the structures. On the basis of published models of D*(max), we interpret the results of our experiment and suggest reasonable explanations for these differences. Especially, the micro/nanostructures caused instability of the interface between liquid and air at Weber number We > ~80 and impacting drops fragmented at We > ~150.