Soft Surface: Droplets on Soft Surfaces Exhibit a Reluctance to Coalesce due to an Intervening Wetting Ridge (Adv. Mater. Interfaces 17/2020)

It is an everyday observation that water droplets condensing on a rigid substrate coalesce immediately upon touching. Soft surfaces, however, possess unique properties that create an illusionary effect in this situation, making it appear that droplets can touch and form a dense pattern instead of coalescing. In article number 2000731 Rishav Roy, Suresh V. Garimella, and coworkers demonstrate that this reluctance to coalesce is a consequence of deformation of the soft surfaces to form intervening ridges between the droplets. The cover art illustrates the topography of droplet ‘footprints’ after they are removed from a cryogenically fixed soft substrate.