The Lotus Effect: Superhydrophobicity and Metastability

To learn how to mimic the Lotus effect, superhydrophobicity of a model system that resembles the Lotus leaf is theoretically discussed. Superhydrophobicity is defined by two criteria: a very high water contact angle and a very low roll-off angle. Since it is very difficult to calculate the latter for rough surfaces, it is proposed here to use the criterion of a very low wet (solid-liquid) contact area as a simple, approximate substitute for the roll-off angle criterion. It is concluded that nature employs metastable states in the heterogeneous wetting regime as the key to superhydrophobicity on Lotus leaves. This strategy results in two advantages: (a) it avoids the need for high steepness protrusions that may be sensitive to breakage and (b) it lowers the sensitivity of the superhydrophobic states to the protrusion distance.