Superhydrophobic-like tunable droplet bouncing on slippery liquid interfaces

Chonglei Hao, Jing Li, Yuan Liu, Xiaofeng Zhou, Yahua Liu, Rong Liu, Lufeng Che, Wenzhong Zhou, Dong Sun, Lawrence Li, Lei Xu, Zuankai Wang

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

255 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Droplet impacting on solid or liquid interfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature. Although complete rebound of droplets is widely observed on superhydrophobic surfaces, the bouncing of droplets on liquid is usually vulnerable due to easy collapse of entrapped air pocket underneath the impinging droplet. Here, we report a superhydrophobic-like bouncing regime on thin liquid film, characterized by the contact time, the spreading dynamics, and the restitution coefficient independent of underlying liquid film. Through experimental exploration and theoretical analysis, we demonstrate that the manifestation of such a superhydrophobic-like bouncing necessitates an intricate interplay between the Weber number, the thickness and viscosity of liquid film. Such insights allow us to tune the droplet behaviours in a well-controlled fashion. We anticipate that the combination of superhydrophobic-like bouncing with inherent advantages of emerging slippery liquid interfaces will find a wide range of applications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7986
JournalNature Communications
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Aug 2015
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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