Bioinspired Smart Surfaces and Droplet Dynamics-A Brief Review

Mimicking the topographic structures and designs of living surfaces (e.g., lotus leaf, pitcher plant and beetle) onto the non-living surfaces (e.g., metallic plates, glass wafers, wood and fabrics) is known as bioinspiration. Consequently, the pristine topography of the non-living surfaces is robustly modified, known as bioinspired smart surfaces, providing novel surface regimes, i.e., wetting regimes and droplet dynamic regimes. Herein, factors affecting the droplet dynamics and its applications in bioinspired smart surfaces are presented. The droplet dynamics is a complicated phenomenon being affected by the various factors, encompassing the surface roughness, axial structural interspacing (ASI), structural apex layer (SAL), surface positioning, structural alignment, liquid droplet-surface interaction (LD-SI), and various stimuli, etc. Further, the droplet dynamics can be seen many applications, such as droplet manipulation, self-cleaning effect, design of controllable chemical reactors and electric circuits, water harvesting and condensation heat transfer, and oil/water separation, amongst others. The chapter has been mainly divided in three sections enclosed between the introduction and conclusion, comprehensively elaborating the classification of surface regimes, factors affecting the droplet dynamics and the applications at lab and industrial scales. In all, the contents are expected to serve as the guideline to accelerate advancement in the surface science