IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-28016-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nanobubbles explain the large slip observed on lubricant-infused surfaces

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Vega-Sánchez

    (The University of Sydney
    University of Sydney Nano Institute, The University of Sydney
    Costa Rica Institute of Technology)

  • Sam Peppou-Chapman

    (The University of Sydney
    University of Sydney Nano Institute, The University of Sydney)

  • Liwen Zhu

    (The University of Sydney
    University of Sydney Nano Institute, The University of Sydney)

  • Chiara Neto

    (The University of Sydney
    University of Sydney Nano Institute, The University of Sydney)

Abstract

Lubricant-infused surfaces hold promise to reduce the huge frictional drag that slows down the flow of fluids at microscales. We show that infused Teflon wrinkled surfaces induce an effective slip length 50 times larger than expected based on the presence of the lubricant alone. This effect is particularly striking as it occurs even when the infused lubricant’s viscosity is several times higher than that of the flowing liquid. Crucially, the slip length increases with increasing air content in the water but is much higher than expected even in degassed and plain Milli-Q water. Imaging directly the immersed interface using a mapping technique based on atomic force microscopy meniscus force measurements reveals that the mechanism responsible for this huge slip is the nucleation of surface nanobubbles. Using a numerical model and the height and distribution of these surface nanobubbles, we can quantitatively explain the large fluid slip observed in these surfaces.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Vega-Sánchez & Sam Peppou-Chapman & Liwen Zhu & Chiara Neto, 2022. "Nanobubbles explain the large slip observed on lubricant-infused surfaces," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28016-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28016-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28016-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-28016-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amir Farokh Payam & Bogyoung Kim & Doojin Lee & Nikhil Bhalla, 2022. "Unraveling the liquid gliding on vibrating solid liquid interfaces with dynamic nanoslip enactment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-28016-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.