Recent research involving solid / liquid interfaces
Some of the recent research involving the group of Glen McHale, Gary Wells and Rodrigo Ledesma-Aguilar who are now at the University of Edinburgh has been on superhydrophobic surfaces, inspired by the Lotus leaf and other superhydrophobic adaptations of plants and animals. More recently, they have started looking at water-shedding surfaces, inspired by the Nepenthes pitcher plant. They have also moved beyond work inspired by nature by looking at ways in which wetting can be controlled in ways that are not available to the natural world, such as through application of an electric field or voltage.
Research involving superhydrophibicity, lubricant-impregnated surfaces and liquid-like surfaces is linked by a design principle from a liquid-on-solid version of Amontons’ Laws of sliding friction, which you can find out more about here. Superhydrophobic surfaces remove the normal component of the surface tension force whilst liquid and liquid-like lubricated surfaces remove the coupling of this normal force into contact line friction. Both approaches result in liquid shedding surfaces.
Follow the links below to see some of the recent work of Glen McHale, Gary Wells and Rodrigo Ledesma-Aguilar.
