Layers of Porous Superhydrophobic Surfaces for Robust Water Repellency

In nature, birds exhibit multiple layers of superhydrophobic feathers that repel water. Inspired by bird feathers, we utilize porous superhydrophobic surfaces and compare the wetting and dewetting characteristics of a single surface to stacks of multiple surfaces. The superhydrophobic surfaces were submerged in water in a closed chamber. Pressurized gas was regulated to measure the critical pressure for the water to fully penetrate through the surfaces. In addition to using duck feathers, two-tier porous superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated to serve as synthetic mimics with a controlled surface structure. The energy barrier for the wetting transition was modeled as a function of the number of layers and their orientations with respect to each other. Moreover, after partial impalement into a subset of the superhydrophobic layers, it was observed that a full dewetting transition was possible, which suggests that natural organisms can exploit their multiple layers to prevent irreversible wetting.