Surface patterning for wetting and liquid flow control

Wetting on rough surfaces is a conundrum that challenges both the scientific and the technological communities. The increasing interest for the development of biomimetic material with tailored wetting properties is in fact accompanied by the need of a deeper understanding of interfacial phenomena. The wetting properties of rough surfaces is ruled by the combination of surface morphology and chemistry. A paradigmatic example is provided by the Lotus leave where the multiscale rough surface structure coated by a hydrophobic wax, promotes the entrapment of air or vapour within asperities, resulting in macroscopic properties, such as high contact angle and self-cleaning, that are collectively indicated as superhydrophobicity. Superhydrophobic surfaces are useful in several biomedical-related areas. e.g. as substrates for particle production as support for cell response studies and for anti-bioadhesion applications [1]. In spite of the recent technological advancements, the stability of the entrained air bubbles and the mechanism of wetting remain largely elusive, making it difficult to predict how long a superhydrophobic state will last and to design effectively synthetic material. In this contribution we employed theoretical and simulation method to analyze the stabilty of superhydrophobic state and its effect on liquid flow.