Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Abstract

This chapter discusses the basics of contact angle (CA) in contrast to natural phenomena present in the surrounding environment such as surfaces of lotus, rice and ramie leaves, correlations between the morphological features, mechanical properties and Laplacean pressure, fabrication of artificial surfaces to mimic superhydrophobic surfaces and their potential applications. It presents elaborate information cum details of techniques, such as electrospinning, sol-gel, soft lithographic imprinting, layer-by-layer deposition, plasma treatment, and so on, skillfully exercised during recent years, in order to fabricate hydrophobic/superhydrophobic surfaces. The chapter addresses the successful preparation of metallic superhydrophobic surfaces, controlled wettability surfaces (CWS), polystyrene nanotubes for drug delivery applications, and so on and future directions of artificially fabricated surfaces. It summarizes recent updates in available data pertaining to the utilization of this concept in interesting engineering applications and is meant to supplement the previously written materials in the similar field. © 2015 The American Ceramic Society. All rights reserved.