scholarly journals Collembola cuticles and the three-phase line tension

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1714-1722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håkon Gundersen ◽  
Hans Petter Leinaas ◽  
Christian Thaulow

The cuticles of most springtails (Collembola) are superhydrophobic, but the mechanism has not been described in detail. Previous studies have suggested that overhanging surface structures play an important role, but such structures are not a universal trait among springtails with superhydrophobic cuticles. A novel wetting experiment with a fluorescent dye revealed the extent of wetting on exposed surface structures. Using simple wetting models to describe the composite wetting of the cuticular surface structures results in underestimating the contact angles of water. Including the three-phase line tension allows for a prediction of contact angles in the observed range. The discrepancy between the contact angle predicted by simple models and those observed is especially large in the springtail Cryptopygus clavatus which changes, seasonally, from superhydrophobic to wetting without a large change in surface structure; C. clavatus does not have overhanging surface structures. This large change in observed contact angles can be explained with a modest change of the three-phase line tension.

Author(s):  
C. A. Ward

A method for determining the surface tension of solid-fluid interfaces has been proposed. For a given temperature and fluid-solid combination, these surface tensions are expressed in terms of material properties that can be determined by measuring the amount of vapor adsorbed on the solid surface as a function of xV, the ratio of the vapor-phase pressure to the saturation-vapor pressure. The thermodynamic concept of pressure is shown to be in conflict with that of continuum mechanics, but is supported experimentally. This approach leads to the prediction that the contact angle, θ, can only exist in a narrow pressure range and that in this pressure range, the solid-vapor surface tension is constant and equal to the surface tension of the liquid-vapor interface, γLV. The surface tension of the solid-liquid interface, γSL, may be expressed in terms of measurable properties, γLV and θ: γSL = γLV(1 − cosθ). The value of θ is predicted to depend on both the pressure in the liquid at the three-phase, line x3L, and the three-phase line curvature, Ccl. We examine these predictions using sessile water droplets on a polished Cu surface, maintained in a closed, constant volume, isothermal container. The value of θ is found to depend on the adsorption at the solid-liquid interface, nSL = nSL(x3L,Ccl). The predicted value of θ is compared with that measured, and found to be in close agreement, but no effect of line tension is found.


Author(s):  
Neeharika Anantharaju ◽  
Mahesh Panchagnula ◽  
Wayne Kimsey ◽  
Sudhakar Neti ◽  
Svetlana Tatic-Lucic

The wettability of silicon surface hydrophobized using silanization reagents was studied. The advancing and receding contact angles were measured with the captive needle approach. In this approach, a drop under study was held on the hydrophobized surface with a fine needle immersed in it. The asymptotic advancing and receding angles were obtained by incrementally increasing the volume added and removed, respectively, until no change in angles was observed. The values were compared with the previously published results. Further, the wetting behavior of water droplets on periodically structured hydrophobic surfaces was investigated. The surfaces were prepared with the wet etching process and contain posts and holes of different sizes and void fractions. The surface geometry brought up a scope to study the Wenzel (filling of surface grooves) and Cassie (non filling of the surface grooves) theories and effects of surface geometry and roughness on the contact angle. Experimental data point to an anomalous behavior where the data does not obey either Wenzel or Cassie type phenomenology. This behavior is explained by an understanding of the contact line topography. The effect of contact line topography on the contact angle was thus parametrically studied. It was also inferred that, the contact angle increased with the increase in void fraction. The observations may serve as guidelines in designing surfaces with the desired wetting behavior.


1999 ◽  
Vol 13 (27) ◽  
pp. 3255-3259 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARVEY DOBBS

We derive the modified Young's equation for the contact angle of a fluid droplet on a rigid substrate using an interface displacement model and identify the line tension with the excess free energy per unit length calculated previously for a straight three-phase contact line.


2004 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Amirfazli ◽  
A.W. Neumann
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Magomed Pashevich Dokhov

The article uses the thermodynamics of interfacial phenomena to justify the fact that Young’s equations can correctly describe the three-phase equilibrium with any type of interatomic bonds. Wetting, adhesion, dissolution, surface adsorption, and other surface phenomena are important characteristics, whichlargely determine the quality and durability of materials, and the development of a number of production techniques, including welding, soldering, baking of metallic and non-metallic powders, etc. Therefore, it is important to study them.Using experimental data regarding surface energies of liquids (melts) and contact angles available in the literature, we calculated the surface energies of many solid metals, oxides, carbides, and other inorganic and organic materials without taking into account the amount of the interfacial energy at the solid-liquid (melt) interface. Some researchers assumed that in case of an acute contact angle the interfacial energy is low. Therefore, they neglected it and assumed it to be zero.Others knew that this value could not be measured, that is why they measured and calculated the difference between the surface energy of a solid and the interfacial energy of a solid and a liquid (melt), which is equal to the product of the surface energy of this liquid by the cosine of the contact angle. It is obvious that these methods of determining the surface energy based on such oversimplified assumptions result in poor accuracy.Through the use of examples this paper shows how the surface energies of solids were previously calculated and how the shortcomings of previous calculations can be corrected


2013 ◽  
Vol 461 ◽  
pp. 731-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Xia Sun ◽  
Ai Ping Liang ◽  
Gregory S. Watson ◽  
Jolanta A. Watson ◽  
Yong Mei Zheng ◽  
...  

The microstructures on elytral surface of aquatic beetles belonging to Hydrophilidae and Dytiscidae were observed under an environment scanning microscope, and the wettabilities were determined with an optical contact angle meter. The results show the elytral surfaces are relatively smooth compared to the structures of other insects such as the butterfly wing scales or cicada wing protrusions. They exhibit a polygonal structuring with grooves and pores being the main constituent units. The contact angles (CAs) range from 47.1oto 82.1o. The advancing and receding angles were measured by injecting into and withdrawing a small amount of water on the most hydrophilic (with a contact angle of 47.1o) and hydrophobic (with a contact angle of 82.1o) elytral surfaces, which illustrates the vital role of three-phase contact line (TCL) in the wetting mechanism of aquatic beetle elytral surfaces.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 747-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lichao Gao ◽  
Alexander Y. Fadeev ◽  
Thomas J. McCarthy

AbstractThe wettability of several superhydrophobic surfaces that were prepared recently by simple, mostly single-step methods is described and compared with the wettability of surfaces that are less hydrophobic. We explain why two length scales of topography can be important for controlling the hydrophobicity of some surfaces (the lotus effect). Contact-angle hysteresis (difference between the advancing, θA, and receding, θR, contact angles) is discussed and explained, particularly with regard to its contribution to water repellency. Perfect hydrophobicity (θA/θR = 180°/180°) and a method for distinguishing perfectly hydrophobic surfaces from those that are almost perfectly hydrophobic are described and discussed. The Wenzel and Cassie theories, both of which involve analysis of interfacial (solid/liquid) areas and not contact lines, are criticized. Each of these related topics is addressed from the perspective of the three-phase (solid/liquid/vapor) contact line and its dynamics. The energy barriers for movement of the three-phase contact line from one metastable state to another control contact-angle hysteresis and, thus, water repellency.


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