Contaminant Removal from Nature's Self-Cleaning Surfaces.

ABSTRACT: Many organisms in nature have evolved superhydrophobic surfaces that leverage water droplets to clean themselves. While this ubiquitous self-cleaning process has substantial industrial promise, experiments have so far been unable to comprehend the underlying physics. With the aid of molecular simulations, here we rationalize and theoretically explain self-cleaning mechanisms by resolving the complex interplay between particle-droplet and particle-surface interactions, which originate at the nanoscale. We present a universal phase diagram that consolidates (a) observations from previous surface self-cleaning experiments conducted at micro-to-millimeter length scales and (b) our nanoscale particle-droplet simulations. Counterintuitively, our analysis shows that an upper limit for the radius

SUBMITTER: Perumanath S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10214492 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature