Liquid Patterning Using Droplet Impact on Textured Nonwetting Surfaces.

ABSTRACT: Controlling the shape and contact area that an impacting droplet makes with a solid substrate has significant implications in numerous industrial processes, including inkjet printing and spray cooling. Here, we report a unique approach that offers an extraordinary ability to precisely control and manipulate the contact shape of a droplet impinging on nonwetting well-structured silicon micropillars. Our experiments show that the wetted Wenzel-type contact area can take on various polygonal shapes, including square, rectangle, hexagon, octagon, and dodecagon, depending on the pillar density (diameter-to-spacing ratio), arrangement (inline versus staggered), and/or the droplet contact angle. Experiments show that inline pillars give rise to a square, rectangle, or octagon shape while staggere

SUBMITTER: Gidreta BT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12903111 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature