Lotus effect
Anonymat number: A364322
M2- Physique des Materiaux et Nanosciences, University of Strasbourg
1. Introduction covered by little pimples (papillae) whereupon a
layer of hydrophobic wax lies. The wax prevents
"Lotus" (Nelumbonucifera), a symbol of purity,
raindrops from getting into the pimples
is a wet, semi-aquatic plant originating in Asia.
This is one of the remarkable bodies that can self- interspaces resulting in only 2% – 3% of the drops
cleanse. At first glance, it can be seen that it has surface being in contact with the leaf.
ordinary leaves. However, scientists have noticed 2. Super-hydrophobic ability and self-
that Lotus flowers escape mud and dirt when they
cleaning
open their leaves in the morning.
Super-hydrophobic surfaces are observed, for
The first scientific study to understand the
example, in the lotus effect, which describes the
structure of the lotus leaf was made in 1977 by
self-cleaning action of the leaf surface. If the leaf
the botanists, Barthlott and Neinhuis1, from the
shows high enough hydrophobicity, water will
University of Bonn. For examining the nano
form near-spherical droplets that roll across the
structure of the lotus leaf surface, electronic
surface instead of sliding. The rolling action
microscopy was used. It was expected that a
increases the amount of foreign bodies picked
smooth structure was observed but a very rough
up2. Rougher surfaces tend to have the greatest
structure was seen as a very crowded tropical
self-cleaning action. The lotus leaf surface adopts
forest.
this self-cleaning mechanism and facilitates the
rolling of water droplets that collect dirt particles
as they move3.
Fig. 2- Diagram demonstrating the cleaning
mechanism on smooth (a) and rough (b) super-
Fig. 1. Microstructure of a lotus leaf surface
hydrophobic surfaces4.
This rough structure is responsible for the super
hydrophobic ability of the leaves. The leave’s
surface has a double layer structure first it is
1 3
Neinhuis and Barthlott, “Characterization and Barthlott and Neinhuis, “Purity of the Sacred Lotus,
Distribution of Water-Repellent, Self-Cleaning Plant or Escape from Contamination in Biological
Surfaces.” Surfaces.”
2 4
Att et al., “The Effect of UV-Photofunctionalization Crick and Parkin, “Preparation and Characterisation
on the Time-Related Bioactivity of Titanium and of Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces.”
Chromium–cobalt Alloys.”
3. Fabrication methods of self-cleaning This approach is simple, mild and low-costing.
surfaces Moreover, sol–gel technique can realize rapid
preparation in large scale, and the request to the
There exist two ideas for preparation of self- base materials is not high. Lee7 fabricated TiO2
cleaning surfaces inspired by the Lotus effect but hierarchical structures, which have the contact
not constrained by lotus leaf structure. First, to angles over 160° for water. And when water was
construct micro-/nanocomposite hierarchical dropped onto and rolled off the surface, silica
structure on an initial hydrophobic surface, and nanoparticles on this surface stuck to the liquid
second, to modify low surface energy materials droplets and were eliminated from the glass
on the micro-/nanocomposite hierarchical surface. This result confirms the self-cleaning
structure surface. effect of it.
Techniques to fabricate micro/nanostructure Electrochemical deposition
Lithography Jiang et al.8 used an electrochemical deposition
method to deposit Au clusters on conductive ITO
This technique can allow the precise control of glass substrate modified with polyelectrolyte
the structure on the surface of a work piece, and multilayer. The clusters exhibit an interesting
apply for large area of periodic micro- dendritic structure with nanoscale protuberances,
/nanopatterns. Fürstner and Barthlot5 fabricated which is a typical hierarchical lotus-like
self-cleaning silicon after specimens with structure. Although the as-prepared film is very
different regular arrays of spikes by X-ray hydrophilic, it exhibits superhydrophobicity after
lithography. These silicon samples could be being immersed in an ethanol solution.
cleaned almost completely from artificial
particulate contaminations by a fog consisting of 4. Applications
water droplets.
A number of product that utilize Lotus effect are
already commercially available or being
Etching
developed. In addition, many patents have been
Etching technology, is an effective preparation granted for various possible applications of the
method of rough structure surface. Breedveld and self-cleaning surfaces. Most of these applications
coworkers6 obtained a roll-off superhydrophobic utilize the self-cleaning effect, especially in the
cellulose paper by domain-selective etching of case of glasses (for architecture, automotive,
amorphous portions of the cellulose in oxygen optical sensor, roof tiles). Besides that, sprays and
plasma and subsequently coating the etched paints which create clean surfaces have been
surface with a thin fluorocarbon film deposited suggested, as well as water-repellent textiles.
via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition
using pentafluoroethane as a precursor.
Techniques to fabricate superhydrophobic
coating
Sol-gel
5 7
Fürstner et al., “Wetting and Self-Cleaning Zhang et al., “Lotus Effect in Wetting and Self-
Properties of Artificial Superhydrophobic Surfaces.” Cleaning.”
6 8
Balu, Breedveld, and Hess, “Fabrication of ‘Roll-off’ Zhang et al., “Polyelectrolyte Multilayer as Matrix
and ‘Sticky’ Superhydrophobic Cellulose Surfaces via for Electrochemical Deposition of Gold Clusters.”
Plasma Processing.”
