Structured Surfaces with Engineered Wettability: Fundamentals, Industrial Applications, and Challenges for Commercialization

Wettability is a fundamental property used to determine solid-liquid interactions and plays an important role in developing functional materials and devices for many industrial applications. The wettability of a solid surface can be controlled by not only its chemistry but also its roughness. Structured surfaces, such as superhydrophilic, superhydrophobic, and superoleophobic surfaces as well as mixed-zone surfaces, have been explored for self-cleaning, antifouling, anticorrosion, oil-water separation, droplet handling, drug delivery, and microfluidics over the past two decades. In this chapter, an overview of recent developments in such wettability-engineered surfaces for industrial applications is provided, focusing on their different strategies or methods and unique competitive advantages. Finally, the main technological challenges for commercialization are discussed.