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Rigid–flexible hybrid surfaces for water-repelling and abrasion-resisting
Friction 2023, 11(4): 635-646
Published: 10 August 2022
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Droplets impacting solid superhydrophobic surfaces is appealing not only because of scientific interests but also for technological applications such as water-repelling. Recent studies have designed artificial surfaces in a rigid–flexible hybrid mode to combine asymmetric redistribution and structural oscillation water-repelling principles, resolving strict impacting positioning; however, this is limited by weak mechanical durability. Here we propose a rigid–flexible hybrid surface (RFS) design as a matrix of concave flexible trampolines barred by convex rigid stripes. Such a surface exhibits a 20.1% contact time reduction via the structural oscillation of flexible trampolines, and even to break through the theoretical inertial-capillary limit via the asymmetric redistribution induced by rigid stripes. Moreover, the surface is shown to retain the above water-repelling after 1,000 abrasion cycles against oilstones under a normal load as high as 0.2 N·mm−1. This is the first demonstration of RFSs for synchronous waterproof and wearproof, approaching real-world applications of liquid-repelling.

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