Designing for Optimum Liquid Repellency

In the current state-of-the-art, most super repellent surfaces are not sufficiently robust to move out of the laboratory into the commercial realm. With the hope of creating super repellent surfaces that could be employed in a wider variety of commercial applications, means to improve the robustness of ultralyophobic surfaces have been explored theoretically. Suspension pressures and drop retention forces were examined in terms of asperity shape, size, and spacing. The findings from this study suggest a strategy for creating surfaces that maintain their liquid repellency even after exposure to large hydrostatic pressures associated with liquid columns or jets.