Direct Visualization of the Behavior and Shapes of the Nanoscale Menisci of an Evaporating Water Droplet on a Hydrophilic Nanotextured Surface via High-Resolution Synchrotron X-ray Imaging.

Despite considerable research interest due to omnipresent and practical importance of interfacial phenomena (e.g., wetting and dewetting) on nanotextured surfaces in the academic and industrial fields, direct visualization of the behavior and shapes of liquid-vapor interfaces between nanoscale structures remains an arduous task because of the resolution limitations of visualization techniques. In this study, we succeeded in a first-hand visualization of the behavior and shapes of the liquid-vapor interfaces of a water droplet between nanometer-scale pillar during evaporation by introducing a synchrotron X-ray imaging technique with spatially high resolution (40 nm/a pixel). On the basis of the visualization data, we intensively analyzed and discussed the spreading and evaporation phenomena of a liquid droplet on hydrophilic nanotextured surfaces.

Wetting Criteria of Intrinsic Contact Angle To Distinguish between Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Micro-/Nanotextured Surfaces: Experimental and Theoretical Analysis with Synchrotron X-ray Imaging.

In this study, the existing knowledge on the wetting criterion, that is, the intrinsic contact angle, for distinguishing between hydrophilic and hydrophobic textured surfaces is verified experimentally. A precise apparent contact angle is measured on micro-, nano-, and micro-/nanotextured surfaces to quantitatively define the surface-wetting conditions. In particular, X-ray tomography is introduced to measure precise geometric morphologies of nano- and micro-/nanotextured surfaces, and the wetting state of the textured surfaces is clearly visualized using synchrotron X-ray imaging. By comparing previous theoretical models and experimental results, it is verified that the intrinsic contact angle for distinguishing between hydrophilic and hydrophobic textured surfaces should be corrected from 90° to 43°. In addition, nonwetting phenomena in the region of the intrinsic contact angle between 43° and 90° are discussed.