Mechanical Strain Induced Tunable Anisotropic Wetting on Buckled PDMS Silver Nanorods Arrays

We report the fabrication of anisotropic superhydrophobic surface with dual-scale roughness by the deposition of silver nanorods arrays on prestretched poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) using oblique angle deposition and subsequent release of strain after the deposition, which resulted in the formation of microbuckles/wrinkles. The amplitude and periodicity of the wrinkles were tuned by varying the prestretching mechanical strain (ε) applied to the PDMS film from 0 to 30% prior to Ag nanorods deposition. The peaks and valleys in the surface topography of Ag nanorods arrays covered PDMS films lead to anisotropic wetting by water droplet. The droplet is free to move along the direction parallel to the wrinkles, but the droplet moving perpendicular to the wrinkles confront energy barrier leading to wetting anisotropy. The anisotropic wettability was tuned from 22 to 37° for 10-30% prestretched PDMS film. The dual scale roughness (nanorods on micro wrinkles) was found to be responsible for the superhydrophobicity (contact angle ∼155°) of the sample prepared for 30% prestretched PDMS film in perpendicular direction. The wetting behavior of the Ag nanorods PDMS film surface was reversibly tuned by applying the mechanical strain, which induces the change in the microscale roughness determined by amplitude (A) and periodicity (λ) of the buckles. Most interestingly, the water droplet also displayed the anisotropy in the roll-off angle. The effect of different A and λ on anisotropic wettability of Ag nanorods arrays/PDMS film was also demonstrated by lattice Boltzmann (LB) modeling. These findings may produce a promising way of controlling the direction of liquid flow such as in microfluidic devices and transportation of the microliter water droplets in a preset direction.