Authors
Florian Lapierre, Philippe Brunet, Yannick Coffinier, Vincent Thomy, Ralf Blossey, Rabah Boukherroub
Publication date
2010
Journal
Faraday Discussions
Volume
146
Pages
125-139
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Description
The reversible actuation of droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces under ambient conditions is currently an important field of research due to its potential applicability in microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices. We have recently shown that Si-nanowire (NW) surfaces allow for reversible actuation provided that the surface structures show certain characteristics. In particular it appears that, for such surfaces, the presence of structures with multiple specific length scales is indeed needed to have a robust reversibility of contact angle changes. Here we report on electrowetting (EW) and impalement experiments on double-scale structured surfaces prepared by a combination of silicon micropillars prepared by an association of optical lithography and silicon etching, and nanowire growth on top of these surfaces. We show that while micropillar surfaces have a low impalement threshold and irreversible EW behaviour, a surface …
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