Droplet navigation on metastable hydrophobic and superhydrophobic nonwoven materials

• Rendering any surface non-wettable requires it to be clean and dry after the droplet is deposited or impacted. Leveraging and quantifying the non-periodic or random topology non-wettable is intricate as the Cassie-Baxter state competes with the Wenzel or impaled state, which becomes further challenging for irregular and heterogeneous nonwoven materials. Herein, we report the fundamental insights of the impalement dynamics of droplets on metastable nonwovens and self-similar nonwoven-titanate nanostructured materials (SS-Ti-NMs) using laser scanning confocal microscopy in three dimensions. Our results represent the first example of liquid imbibition in metastable nonwovens and SS-Ti-NMs involving a complex interplay between a triumvirate of factors – the number of fibres in the defined cross-sectional area (volume), pore features, and intrinsic wetting properties of the constituent entities. Predictive models of the apparent contact angle and breakthrough pressure for nonwovens and their SS-Ti-NMs have been proposed based on micro- and nano-scale structural parameters. Enabled by X-ray microcomputed tomography analysis, a key set of three-dimensional fibre and structural parameters of nonwovens has been unveiled, which played a vital role in validating the predictive models of apparent contact angles.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik -- Textil-, gummi- och polymermaterial (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering -- Textile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Textil och mode (generell)

Textiles and Fashion (General)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)