| Superhydrophobic surfaces are often found on plant leaves and insect wings in nature. Water on these surfaces forms small beads with a high contact angle of greater than 150° and drips off rapidly when the surfaces are slightly inclined. This interesting phenomenon has stimulated extensive research to make artificial superhydrophobic surfaces and to employ them for a variety of applications. A key challenge in making superhydrophobic surfaces is to tailor the morphology of the surfaces in nanometer scales, which typically involves synthesis and fabrication of materials at nanometer dimensions.;In this dissertation, I will first explain general design principles for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces, with a specific focus on how to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces on intrinsically hydrophilic materials. I will then present several fabrication methods developed during my Ph.D. program for making artificial superhydrophobic surfaces following such design principles. Finally, I will discuss initial results of our investigation on two promising applications of superhydrophobic surfaces, namely, for anti-icing and hydrodynamic drag reduction purposes, respectively. |
