"Withstands Water Droplet Impact... UNIST Professor Lee Dongwook's Team Develops Superhydrophobic Surface"

Biomimetic Design Resistant to Water Droplets and Pressure Achieves Stable Superhydrophobicity

Concave Pillar Structure Improves Industrial Efficiency... Published in Advanced Materials

A research team at UNIST (President Park Jongrae) has developed a superhydrophobic surface inspired by the structure of leaf beetles, which is highly resistant to water droplet impact and water pressure.

This technology is expected to improve efficiency and reduce maintenance costs in various industries such as marine, aviation, and energy.

Research team. (From the top left clockwise: Professor Dongwook Lee, Jinwoo Park (first author), Seunghyun Lee, Jinhoon Lee (first author) researchers)

The team led by Professor Lee Dongwook from the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering biomimetically reproduced the concave structures found in organisms like leaf beetles. Based on this structure, they created a concave pillar-shaped surface capable of maintaining superhydrophobicity even under harsh conditions.

By adopting unique structures found in nature, the surface prevents wetting and achieves enhanced superhydrophobicity compared to conventional designs. This concave pillar structure has been proven to offer superior resistance to impact and water pressure compared to existing superhydrophobic surfaces.

Superhydrophobicity refers to the property where water does not penetrate the surface and easily rolls off. This property is utilized in various fields such as self-cleaning, anti-icing, and anti-contamination.

Conventional superhydrophobic surfaces have the limitation of becoming easily wetted when exposed to droplet impact or water pressure. To overcome this, a stable anti-wetting function is required, and the surface must maintain superhydrophobicity even in harsh environments.

The research team drew inspiration from the concave structures of leaf beetles and springtails. Based on this, they fabricated a pillar-shaped surface with concave pores. This surface demonstrated stable superhydrophobicity even when water droplets collided at high speed or under high-pressure underwater conditions.

Experimental results showed that the concave pillar structure remained unwetted under impacts about 1.6 times stronger than those tolerated by conventional pillar structures. In high-pressure environments, about 87% of conventional pillar structures became wetted, whereas only 7% of the concave pillar structures did.

The concave pores formed an air cushion when water droplets contacted the surface. This cushion acted like a spring, preventing water from penetrating the surface. As a result, the concave pillar surface was able to stably maintain superhydrophobicity for over 24 hours.

Overview of the Fabrication of Biomimetic Superhydrophobic Surfaces.

Professor Lee Dongwook stated, "We have proposed a new direction for the design of stable superhydrophobic surfaces," and added, "If this design is commercialized, it is expected to make significant contributions in various industrial settings."

The research was conducted with doctoral student Lee Jinhoon and Dr. Park Jinwoo as co-first authors, supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea's Mid-career Researcher Support Program and the Nano and Material Technology Development Program. The results were published online in the world-renowned journal Advanced Materials on October 2.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.