Effects of roughness pitch of surfaces on their wettability

The surface roughness factors, such as the Wenzel roughness factor and so on, are very interrelated to each other. Therefore, it makes a precise discussion difficult on how the surface roughness affects the wettability. We already reported the effect of the surface roughness on the wettability at a constant Wenzel roughness factor using two kinds of models, the hemisphere close packing model and the hemiround rod close lining model. Nevertheless, the pitch is proportional to the height in these models. Therefore, we could not independently discuss the influence of roughness height and roughness pitch on the wettability. We developed our new models which can independently describe the influence of the surface roughness height and the roughness pitch on the wettability. We simulated loose packing sphere models by periodically placing small ball bearings and the loose lining round rod models by winding fine wires. The wettability was measured by the sessile drop method for the non-wetting system using paraffin coated samples and aqueous solutions. These results show that there is a critical pitch which determines the maximum contact angle in both systems. These results can be explained by the ratio of the solid/liquid/vapor and liquid/vapor line length at the three phase line. C 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.