Tag Archives: Bouncing Droplets: Superhydrophobic and Superhydrophilic Surfaces

Hydrophobic and hydrophilic for beginners

Anyone who’s interested in biomimicry (mimicking nature, for one reason or another) is likely to come across the terms hydrophobic (e.g. lotus leaves where water beads up into little balls) and hydrophilic, materials where water spreads itself evenly (e.g. desert beetles such as the stenocara are partly hydrophilic).  David L. Chandler at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has written a good explanation (H/T phys.org) of these two states and the surface tensions which cause them in his article, Explained: Hydrophobic and hydrophilic; Better understanding of how surfaces attract or repel water could improve everything from power plants to ketchup bottles of July 16, 2013,

Materials with a special affinity for water — those it spreads across, maximizing contact — are known as hydrophilic. Those that naturally repel water, causing droplets to form, are known as hydrophobic. Both classes of materials can have a significant impact on the performance of power plants, electronics, airplane wings and desalination plants, among other technologies, says Kripa Varanasi, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Improvements in hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces could provide ketchup bottles where the condiment just glides right out, glasses that never fog up, or power plants that wring more electricity from a given amount of fuel.

Hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials are defined by the geometry of water on a flat surface — specifically, the angle between a droplet’s edge and the surface underneath it. This is called the contact angle.

If the droplet spreads, wetting a large area of the surface, then the contact angle is less than 90 degrees and that surface is considered hydrophilic, or water-loving (from the Greek words for water, hydro, and love, philos). But if the droplet forms a sphere that barely touches the surface — like drops of water on a hot griddle — the contact angle is more than 90 degrees, and the surface is hydrophobic, or water-fearing.

I recommend  reading this piece in its entirety if you want find out more about this unexpectedly interesting topic. For those who don’t have the patience to read the whole article or like to augment their reading with videos, there’s the Bouncing Droplets: Superhydrophobic and Superhydrophilic Surfaces video at the Khan Academy. This well-paced  video was produced by MIT’s Bioinstrumentation Laboratory and is suitable for older children and adults.