Artificial petal surface based on hierarchical micro- and nanostructures

Abstract In this paper, we present an artificial rose petal composed of hierarchical micro- and nanostructures on a polymethyl methacrylate surface. The petal effect implies that the surface has a high adhesion force in spite of being in a super-hydrophobic state, while the lotus effect implies that the surface has a low adhesion force when it is in a super-hydrophobic state. We have fabricated four different types of surfaces, namely, smooth, nanostructured, microstructured, and hierarchically micro-nanostructured surfaces. Microstructures and nanostructures have a quadrangular pyramid shape (one-side length: 15 ± 2 μm, height: 10.6 ± 1 μm) and a circular bump shape (diameter: 130 ± 10 nm, height: 100 ± 10 nm), respectively. The four types of surfaces are also chemically treated with trichlorosilane in order to reduce the surface energy. The contact angles of the smooth, nanostructured, microstructured, and hierarchically micro-nanostructured surfaces are measured to be 104° ± 2°, 112° ± 2°, 138° ± 4°, and 159° ± 2° after the chemical treatment. In the case of the super-hydrophobic micro-nanostructured surfaces, water droplets remain attached to the surface, even when the surface is turned upside down.