The Wetting of Insect Cuticles by Water

1955 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. HOLDGATE
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Contact Angle ◽  
Surface Properties ◽  
Surface Composition ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Aquatic Species ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Calliphora Erythrocephala ◽  
Wetting Properties ◽  
Wide Range

1. The water contact angles of insects show a wide range of variation, which is broadly correlated with surface roughness and with habitat. 2. The contact angles of species inhabiting stored products or carrion are greatly modified by contamination. This produces large variations between apparently similar individuals. 3. In terrestrial insects surface roughness increases the contact angles to very large apparent values. Detailed analyses of its effect have been made in the pupa of Tenebrio molitor and the adult Calliphora erythrocephala. In some aquatic insects surface roughness leads to a reduction in the contact angles; this has been studied in the nymph of Anax imperator. 4. Prolonged immersion in water causes a lowering of the contact angles of all the insects examined, and the low angles of many aquatic species may therefore be the direct effect of their environment. In some aquatic species there is evidence of the active maintenance of a large contact angle during life. 5. Changes in contact angle accompany processes of cuticle secretion and will occur at any moult if changes in roughness or habitat take place. 6. The observed variations of surface properties can be explained without assuming any variation in the chemical composition of the cuticle surface. Wetting properties are of little value as indicators of cuticle surface composition. 7. The biological aspects of insect surface properties are briefly discussed.

Laser-Induced Nanocarbon Formation for Tuning Surface Properties of Commercial Polymers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moataz Abdulhafez ◽  
Angela J. McComb ◽  
Mostafa Bedewy
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Surface Properties ◽  
Surface Characterization ◽  
Surface Engineering ◽  
Surface Hydrophobicity ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Structure Property ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Commercial Polymers

Abstract The growth of laser-induced nanocarbons, referred to here are LINC for short, directly on polymeric surfaces is a promising route toward surface engineering of commercial polymers. This paper aims to demonstrate how this new approach can enable achieving varied surface properties based on tuning the nanostructured morphology of the formed graphitic material on commercial polyimide (Kapton) films. We elucidate the effects of tuning laser processing parameters on the achieved nanoscale morphology and the resulting surface hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity. Our results show that by varying lasing power, rastering speed, laser spot size, and line-to-line gap sizes, a wide range of water contact angles are possible, i.e. from below 20° to above 110°. Combining water contact angle measurements from an optical tensiometer with LINC surface characterization using optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy enables building the process-structure-property relationship. Our findings reveal that both the value of contact angle and the anisotropic wetting behavior of LINC on polyimide are dependent on their hierarchical surface nanostructure which ranges for isotropic nanoporous morphology to fibrous morphology. Results also show that increasing gap sizes lead to an increase in contact angles and thus an increase in the hydrophobicity of the surface. Hence, our work highlight the potential of this approach for manufacturing flexible devices with tailored surfaces.

scholarly journals Surface Properties of Pine Scrimber Panels with Varying Density

Coatings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinguang Wei ◽  
Qiuqin Lin ◽  
Yahui Zhang ◽  
Wenji Yu ◽  
Chung-Yun Hse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Surface Properties ◽  
Photoelectron Spectroscopy ◽  
Lower Surface ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
High Density ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Change Rate ◽  
Hydrophilic Material ◽  
Wood Grain

Coating quality for scrimber products against exterior conditions is largely dependent on the surface properties. The wettability, morphology, and chemical composition of pine scrimber surfaces were investigated to better understand the surface properties. The scrimber was found to be a hydrophilic material because the water contact angles were less than 90°. The panels with a density of 1.20 g/cm3 had the largest angle change rate (k = 0.212). As the panel density increased, the instantaneous contact angle of each test liquid (i.e., water, formamide, and diiodomethane) on the panels decreased, and so did surface free energy. Panels with higher density showed lower surface roughness. Surface roughness across the wood grain was greater than that along the grain. SEM observations showed the high-density panels had a smoother surface with fewer irregular grooves in comparison with the low-density panels. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated that more unoxygenated groups appeared on the surface of high-density panels.

Diamond-Like Carbon Films for Silicon Passivation in Microelectromechanical Devices

1995 ◽  
Vol 383 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Houston ◽  
R. T. Howe ◽  
K Komvopoulos ◽  
R. Maboudian
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Surface Properties ◽  
Photoelectron Spectroscopy ◽  
Microelectromechanical Systems ◽  
Adhesion Force ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Vacuum Arc ◽  
Diamond Like Carbon ◽  
Adhesion Forces ◽  
Water Contact

ABSTRACTThe surface properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films deposited by a vacuum arc technique on smooth silicon wafers are presented with specific emphasis given to stiction reduction in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The low deposition temperatures afforded by the vacuum arc technique should allow for easy integration of the DLC films into the current fabrication process of typical surface micromachines by means of a standard lift-off processing technique. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), contact angle analysis, and atomic force microscopy (AFM), the surface chemistry, microroughness, hydrophobicity, and adhesion forces of DLC-coated Si(100) surfaces were measured and correlated to the measured water contact angles. DLC films were found to be extremely smooth and possess a water contact angle of 87°, which roughly corresponds to a surface energy of 22 mJ/m2. It is shown that the pull-off forces measured by AFM correlate well with the predicted capillary forces. Pull-off forces are reduced on DLC surfaces by about a factor of five compared to 10 nN pull-off forces measured on the RCA-cleaned silicon surfaces. In the absence of meniscus forces, the overall adhesion force is expected to decrease by over an order of magnitude to the van der Waals attractive force present between two DLC-coated surfaces- To further improve the surface properties of DLC, films were exposed to a fluorine plasma which increased the contact angle to 99° and lowered the pull-off force by approximately 20% over that obtained with as-deposited DLC. The significance of these results is discussed with respect to stiction reduction in micromachines.

Tailoring Surface Hydrophobicity of Commercial Polyimide by Laser-Induced Nanocarbon Texturing

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moataz Abdulhafez ◽  
Angela J. McComb ◽  
Mostafa Bedewy
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Surface Characterization ◽  
Surface Engineering ◽  
Processing Parameters ◽  
Surface Hydrophobicity ◽  
Spot Size ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Surface Nanostructure

Abstract The growth of laser-induced nanocarbons, referred to here as laser-induced nanocarbon (LINC) for short, directly on polymeric surfaces is a promising route toward surface engineering of commercial polymers. This paper aims to demonstrate how this new approach can enable achieving varied surface properties based on tuning the nanostructured morphology of the formed graphitic material on commercial polyimide (Kapton) films. We elucidate the effects of tuning laser processing parameters on the achieved nanoscale morphology and the resulting surface hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity. Our results show that by varying lasing power, rastering speed, laser spot size, and line-to-line gap sizes, a wide range of water contact angles are possible, i.e., from below 20 deg to above 110 deg. Combining water contact angle measurements from an optical tensiometer with LINC surface characterization using optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy enables building the process–structur–property relationship. Our findings reveal that both the value of contact angle and the anisotropic wetting behavior of LINC on polyimide are dependent on their hierarchical surface nanostructure which ranges from isotropic nanoporous morphology to fibrous morphology. Results also show that increasing gap sizes lead to an increase in contact angles and thus an increase in the hydrophobicity of the surface. Hence, our work highlight the potential of this approach for manufacturing flexible devices with tailored surfaces.

scholarly journals Preparation of Superhydrophobic Teflon® AF 1600 Sub-Micron Fibers and Yarns Using the Forcespinningtm Technique

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 155892501300800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yatinkumar Rane ◽  
Aleksey Altecor ◽  
Nelson S. Bell ◽  
Karen Lozano
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Contact Angle ◽  
Average Diameter ◽  
Contact Angle Measurement ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Angle Measurement ◽  
Sem Analysis ◽  
Fiber Formation ◽  
Excellent Thermal Stability ◽  
Wetting Properties

Superhydrophobic materials combined with manufacturing processes that can increase surface roughness of the material, offer an opportunity to effectively control wetting properties. Rapid formation of Teflon® AF (TAF) fibrous mats with sub-micron fiber diameter using the Forcespinning™ technique is presented. The fiber formation technique is based on the use of centrifugal forces. SEM analysis shows uniform formation of TAF 1600 fibers with average diameter of 362±58nm. Contact angle measurement confirms the superhydrophobic nature of the mats with contact angles as high as 169° ± 3° and rolling angles of 2°. TAF 1600 mats were forcespun at a rate of 1gr/min. The relationship between the contact angle and hierarchical surface roughness of the TAF mat is also discussed. TAF yarns were also manufactured and characterized. Yarns with diameters of 156 microns withstood 17.5 MPa of engineering stress with a Young's modulus of 348 MPa in the elastic region and excellent thermal stability.

scholarly journals Fabrication of a Simultaneous Highly Transparent and Highly Hydrophobic Fibrous Films

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5565
Author(s):  
Doo-Hyeb Youn ◽  
Kyu-Sung Lee ◽  
Sun-Kyu Jung ◽  
Mangu Kang
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Contact Angle ◽  
Water Contact Angle ◽  
Electrospun Fiber ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Light Transmittance ◽  
Electrospun Fibers ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Aligned Fibers ◽  
Highly Hydrophobic

This paper discusses the fabrication and characterization of electrospun nanofiber scaffolds made of polystyrene (PS). The scaffolds were characterized in terms of their basis material molecular weight, fiber diameter distribution, contact angles, contact angle hysteresis, and transmittance. We propose an aligned electrospun fiber scaffold using an alignment tool (alignment jig) for the fabrication of highly hydrophobic (θW > 125°) and highly transparent (T > 80.0%) films. We fabricated the alignment jig to align the electrospun fibers parallel to each other. The correlation between the water contact angles and surface roughness of the aligned electrospun fibers was investigated. We found that the water contact angle increased as the surface roughness was increased. Therefore, the hydrophobic properties of the aligned electrospun fibers were enhanced by increasing the surface roughness. With the change in the electrospinning mode to produce aligned fibers rather than randomly distributed fibers, the transmittance of the aligned electrospun fibers increased. The increase in the porous area, leading to better light transmittance in comparison to randomly distributed light scattering through the aligned electrospun fibers increased with the fibers. Through the above investigation of electrospinning parameters, we obtained the simultaneous transparent (>80%) and hydrophobic (θW > 140°) electrospun fiber scaffold. The aligned electrospun fibers of PS had a maximum transmittance of 91.8% at the electrospinning time of 10 s. The water contact angle (WCA) of the aligned electrospun fibers increased from 77° to 141° as the deposition time increased from 10 s to 40 s. The aligned fibers deposited at 40 s showed highly hydrophobic characteristics (θW > 140°).

scholarly journals Wettability in complex porous materials, the mixed-wet state, and its relationship to surface roughness

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (36) ◽  
pp. 8901-8906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed AlRatrout ◽  
Martin J. Blunt ◽  
Branko Bijeljic
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Contact Angle ◽  
Pore Space ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Water Repellent ◽  
Local Degree ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Mixed Wettability ◽  
The Impact

A quantitative in situ characterization of the impact of surface roughness on wettability in porous media is currently lacking. We use reservoir condition micrometer-resolution X-ray tomography combined with automated methods for the measurement of contact angle, interfacial curvature, and surface roughness to examine fluid/fluid and fluid/solid interfaces inside a porous material. We study oil and water in the pore space of limestone from a giant producing oilfield, acquiring millions of measurements of curvature and contact angle on three millimeter-sized samples. We identify a distinct wetting state with a broad distribution of contact angle at the submillimeter scale with a mix of water-wet and water-repellent regions. Importantly, this state allows both fluid phases to flow simultaneously over a wide range of saturation. We establish that, in media that are largely water wet, the interfacial curvature does not depend on solid surface roughness, quantified as the local deviation from a plane. However, where there has been a significant wettability alteration, rougher surfaces are associated with lower contact angles and higher interfacial curvature. The variation of both contact angle and interfacial curvature increases with the local degree of roughness. We hypothesize that this mixed wettability may also be seen in biological systems to facilitate the simultaneous flow of water and gases; furthermore, wettability-altering agents could be used in both geological systems and material science to design a mixed-wetting state with optimal process performance.

Measurement of Wood Wettability by the Wilhelmy Method. Part 2. Determination of Apparent Contact Angles

Holzforschung ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.E.P. Wålinder ◽  
G. Ström
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Contact Angle ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Liquid Density ◽  
Initial Part ◽  
Test Cycle ◽  
Wetting Properties ◽  
Surface Energetics ◽  
Efficient Control

Summary This work focuses on the determination of apparent contact angles on wood by the Wilhelmy method. In this method, the force acting on an object is measured during a test cycle involving immersion in and withdrawal from a probe liquid. Fresh and aged veneers of extracted and non-extracted heart- and sapwood of pine were investigated. The results indicate that wicking of the probe liquids, into and along the porous wood veneers, occurs during the test cycles and that this strongly affects the determination of contact angles. It is suggested that two different wicking phenomena occur. First, when the veneer contacts the liquid, an instantaneous ‘initial wicking’ occurs. It is suggested that this initial wicking is influenced primarily by the liquid density and structural properties of the specimen (such as porosity and surface roughness), and not by surface energetics. An initial wicking constant was therefore estimated for the different veneer samples based on measurements in octane. Second, after the initial wicking, a continuing ‘secondary wicking’ is observed. In some cases, this may result in zero contact angle after a certain immersion depth. Contact angles should, therefore, be estimated from the initial part of the immersion, where the secondary wicking can be neglected. This may also reduce any contamination of the probe liquids by extractives. The Wilhelmy method seems to be a valuable tool for estimating the wetting properties of wood, permitting reproducible measurements of apparent contact angles provided that there is efficient control of wicking and contamination effects.

scholarly journals Assessment of Super-Hydrophobic Textured Coatings on AA6082 Aluminum Alloy

Coatings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Calabrese ◽  
Amani Khaskhoussi ◽  
Salvatore Patane ◽  
Edoardo Proverbio
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Surface Morphology ◽  
In Situ Polymerization ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Measuring System ◽  
Hydrophobic Surfaces ◽  
Short Term Treatment ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Water Separation ◽  
Wide Range

Superhydrophobicity is one of the most required surface properties for a wide range of application such as self-cleaning, anti-corrosion, oil-water separation, anti-icing, and anti-bioadhesion. Recently, several methods have been developed to produce nature inspired super-hydrophobic surfaces. Nevertheless, these methods require a complicated process and expensive equipment. In order to overcome these issues, we propose three different methods to obtain nature-inspired super-hydrophobic surfaces: short-term treatment with boiling water, HF/HCl and HNO3/HCl concentrated solution etching. Afterwards, a thin layer of octadecylsilane was applied by in situ polymerization on all pre-treated surfaces. Eventually, all substrates were dried for 3 h at 100 °C to complete the silane curing. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle measuring system and atomic force microscope (AFM) were used to characterize the surfaces. Surface morphology analysis showed that each method results in a specific dual hierarchical nano-/micro-structure. The corresponding water contact angles ranged from 160° to nearly 180°. The best results were observed for HF etched Al 6082 surface were water contact angle above 175° was achieved. Furthermore, a scheme able to assess the relationship between hydrophobic behavior and surface morphology was finally proposed.

Cluster analysis of genotypically characterized Lactobacillus species based on physicochemical cell surface properties and their relationship with adhesion to hexadecane

1997 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin W. Millsap ◽  
Gregor Reid ◽  
Henny C. van der Mei ◽  
Henk J. Busscher
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Cell Surface ◽  
Surface Properties ◽  
Surface Composition ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lactobacillus Species ◽  
Water Contact ◽  
Cell Surface Properties ◽  
Isoelectric Points

Lactobacilli can interfere with the adhesion of uropathogens to uroepithelial cells and catheter materials through a variety of mechanisms, such as adhesion. Lactobacillus adhesion to substratum surfaces has been theorized to result from the physicochemical properties of the interacting surfaces. In this paper physicochemical cell-surface properties, including hydrophobicity (determined by water contact angles), pH dependence of zeta potentials, elemental surface composition (determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), and adhesion to hexadecane, of four genotypically characterized Lactobacillus species (eight L. acidophilus, eight L. casei, four L. fermentum, and seven L. plantarum strains) were determined to see whether a grouping of the strains according to their phenotypes could be obtained that corresponded with the genotypic characterization of the strains. The strains showed major differences in physicochemical cell-surface properties: at the species level relationships could be observed between water contact angles, isoelectric points, and the N/C and O/C elemental surface concentration ratios, with nitrogen-containing groups (proteins) being responsible for increased hydrophobicities and isoelectric points, and oxygen-containing groups (phosphates and polysaccharides) yielding decreased hydrophobicities and isoelectric points. A hierarchical cluster analysis grouped all L. acidophilus strains in one well-separated cluster that also included two L. casei and two L. fermentum strains. Separation of L. acidophilus from the other species was done predominantly on the basis of increased cell surface hydrophobicity (average water contact angle of 63°) and isoelectric point (approximately pH 3.3) as compared with the other species, which had lower water contact angles and isoelectric points, and corresponded with the observation that only L. acidophilus strains adhered in measurable numbers to hexadecane. Also, the L. plantarum strains were grouped closely together in one cluster, but this cluster was heterogeneous due to the inclusion of L. casei and L. fermentum strains.Key words: Lactobacillus, surface properties, hydrophobicity, zeta potential, adhesion.

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