Collective wetting transitions of submerged gas-entrapping microtextured surfaces

Abstract

Numerous natural and industrial processes entail the spontaneous entrapment of gas/air as rough/patterned surfaces are submerged under water. As the wetting transitions ensue, the gas diffuses into the water leading to the fully water-filled state. However, the standard models for wetting do not account for the microtexture's topography on collective wetting transitions. In other words, it is not clear whether the lifetime of n cavities arranged in a one-dimensional (I-D) line or a two-dimensional (II-D) (circular or square) lattice would be the same or not as a single 0-D cavity. In response, we tracked the time-dependent fates of gas pockets trapped in I-D and II-D lattices and compared them with wetting transitions in commensurate 0-D cavities. Interestingly, the collective wetting transitions in the I-D and the II-D arrays had a directionality such that the gas from the outermost cavities was lost the first, while the innermost got filled by water the last. In essence, microtexture's spatial organization afforded shielding to the loss of the gas from the innermost cavities, which we probed as a function of the microtexture's pitch, surface density, dimensionality, and hydrostatic pressure. These findings advance our knowledge of wetting transitions in microtextures and inspiring surface textures to protect electronic devices against liquid ingression.