Promoting rebound of impinging viscoelastic droplets on heated superhydrophobic surfaces

The rebound of impinging droplets is a defining characteristic of superhydrophobic surfaces; yet, such an intriguing interfacial phenomenon can be effectively suppressed by adding a tiny amount of flexible polymers to induce non-Newtonian viscoelastic properties. In this work, however, we demonstrate the promoting effects of surface heating on the rebound of impinging viscoelastic droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces. The underlying mechanism for the promotion is that the local heat transfer at the liquid-solid interface causes the fast evaporation of the liquid and thus the breakup of the formed viscoelastic filaments, which hinder droplet recoiling. Therefore, the lower threshold velocity for rebound increases while the upper threshold velocity for rebound suppression decreases with increasing surface temperature, resulting in a wider regime for droplet rebound in the impact phase diagram. The surface heating effect on liquid-solid interactions also leads to a nontrivial dependence of the contact time on the impact velocity and a linear decrease of the restitution coefficient with the Weber number for diverse bouncing viscoelastic droplets, which can be rationalized by coupling the interfacial force and energy analyses. We envision that these findings would be useful in technological processes requiring control the retention of viscoelastic liquids on solid surfaces