Other Abstract | Traditional micropillar surfaces have faced many challenges in controlling the fluids with low surface tension. In recent years, inspired by biomimetic structures such as Collembola surface, combining microcavities and micropillars to form "cavity-pillar synergistic system" has become research hotspots to achieve liquid-repellent and fluid control. Also, microcavity surface has important application value in many industrial fields such as water collection, self-cleaning and anti-microbico, microfluidics, underwater drag reduction and oil-water separation, etc. However, for a long time, the cognition of the microcavity surface has been limited to the "inverse micropillar structure". The wetting theory of microcavity surface still follows the rough surface wetting theory represented by Cassie-Baxter wetting model. The effect of the gas-liquid interface inside cavity on the wetting transition is neglected to some extent. At present, there are few studies on the control of low surface tension fluid infiltration and the changes of gas-liquid interface on the microcavity surface, leading to insufficient understanding about the effect of microcavity on the droplet wetting transition and evaporation, which hinders the applications of microcavity structure in liquid-repellent engineering. In view of the above problems, this doctoral dissertation studies the spreading and wetting transition characteristics of low surface tension droplets on microcavity surface, and focuses on the influence of air-liquid interface inside microcavity, and establishes mechanical models and scaling relationship to explain the wetting phenomenon on microcavity surface. The influences of the microcavity on colloidal droplet evaporation and particle assembly are also explored.
PDMS microcavity surfaces with different roughness and solid fraction were prepared by deep silicon etching and soft lithography. Multi-dimensional droplet motion observation system that met the functions of real-time observation and long-term recording was built. The morphology of air-liquid interface inside the microcavity was obtained by reference interference fringe analysis technology. This paper studies the mechanism between mesoscopic evolution of the air-liquid interface and macroscopic droplet spreading. For the non-evaporative low surface tension droplets on the microcavity surface, the spreading shape of droplet corresponds to the arrangement of the microcavity. The droplet spreading on microcavity surface can be divided into rapid spreading stage, pinning stage and directional wetting transition stage. Based on experimental data, the mechanical evolution model of air-liquid interface in the microcavity is established by using the relationship between macroscopic variables (droplet velocity, time, etc.) and mesoscopic variables (air-liquid interface). The study shows that the initial shape of air-liquid interface inside the microcavity is important determinant for the duration of Cassie wetting state. It is elucidated that the directional wetting transition phenomenon satisfies the spatiotemporal power-law relationship R~tn.
On the basis of above research, by using gradient microcavity surface, the differences of droplet wetting transition on diverse microcavity surfaces were further studied. The study found that the evolution time of the air-liquid interface inside the microcavity is proportional to the microcavity fraction and liquid viscosity; the spreading area is inversely proportional to the microcavity roughness. Based on the polymer rheology, a phenomenological bead-spring model of the wetting transition on microcavity surface was established. It was found that the viscoelastic properties of macromolecular chains were transmitted to adjacent microcavities, which proved that the air-liquid interface evolution inside one microcavity will be affected by adjacent microcavities. This synergistic effect improve the enhanced mechanism of the Cassie-Baxter wetting state of polymer droplets on microcavity surface, and provide some theoretical basis for the design of the cavity-pillar synergistic system on the super liquid-repellent surface.
The evaporation of colloidal droplets with micro-particles on microcavity surface are also investigated. By examining the evaporation dynamic characteristics and particle deposition results of colloidal droplets on the hydrophobic microcavity surface, it is found that the topography enhances the contact line fluctuation and jumping phenomenon during droplets evaporation process. Unlike smooth surfaces, there is no constant contact angle satge, and the microcavity topography hinders the inward shrinkage and rupture of liquid film. It is proposed that the droplet evaporation on the surface of the hydrophilic microcavity can be divided into the CCR evaporation stage, the rapid evaporation stage of the thin liquid film, and the evaporation stage of the residual liquid inside the microcavity. It was found that the reason of dry zone formation in the particle assembly was the breakage of liquid film at the edge of the microcavity during the rapid evaporation stage. At the same time, the "pumping effect" of the microcavity on the surrounding particles led to the accelerated aggregation of particles into the microcavity driven by the compensating backflow drag force. A related model was established to explain the mechanism of particle assembly on the microcavities surface. This study provides a theoretical basis for the development of shape control of coffee ring.
In addition, this paper also explores the application of spherical indentation method in the characterization of stress-softening effect and the inversion of constitutive parameters of polymer materials. The mechanical response to cyclic compressive load was found to be enhanced with the increase of filler volume fraction within a certain range. This research can provide support for polymer material performance improvement and testing procedure optimization. |
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