Electrowetting-based droplet actuation has applications in digital microfluidics. Mobility of droplets on surfaces can be enhanced using structured superhydrophobic surfaces that offer inherently low adhesion to droplets in the Cassie state. However, these surfaces must be designed to prevent transition to the Wenzel state (in which droplets are immobile) at high electrowetting actuation voltages. The electrowetting behavior of cylindrical microposts and mushroom-shaped re-entrant microstructures, both of which afford excellent superhydrophobicity, is investigated and compared. A surface-energy-based model is employed to estimate the energy barrier for the Cassie-to-Wenzel transition and thus the electrowetting voltage required to initiate this transition. The mushroom structures are predicted to be more resilient to transition (i.e., transition occurs at a voltage that is up to 1.5 times higher) than microposts. Both types of microstructured surfaces are fabricated and electrowetting experiments performed to demonstrate that mushroom structures indeed inhibit the Cassie-to-Wenzel transition at voltages that induce such transition on the cylindrical microposts.
Microscale interactions with deformable substrates are of fundamental interest for studying self‐assembly processes and the mobility of cells on soft surfaces, with applications in traction force microscopy. The behavior of microscale water droplets on a soft polymer substrate is investigated. Droplets formed by condensation on the soft substrate are reluctant to coalesce, which leads to coverage of the surface with clusters of droplets assembled in a honeycomb‐like pattern. Cryogenically fixed in this state, scanning electron microscopy of these droplets reveals the presence of an intervening wetting ridge of the polymer that acts as a barrier between neighboring droplets and prevents coalescence. A linear elastic deformation model is developed to predict this surface profile and corroborate the observed behavior.
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