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Materials science

Droplets leap into action

Nature volume 527, pages 41–42 (2015)Cite this article

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What could cause a water droplet to start bouncing on a surface? It seems that a combination of evaporation and a highly water-repellent surface induces droplet bouncing when ambient pressure is reduced. See Letter p.82

On page 82 of this issue, Schutzius et al.1 report a remarkable phenomenon: at low pressure, droplets of water resting on an extremely water-repellent surface spontaneously jump and bounce. In some cases, the height of each bounce increases, like a gymnast jumping on a trampoline. The findings add to our understanding of how droplet–surface interactions can prevent the accumulation of water or ice on surfaces.

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Figure 1: Mechanism of droplet trampolining.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Doris Vollmer and Hans-Jürgen Butt are at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz 55128, Germany.,

    Doris Vollmer & Hans-Jürgen Butt

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  1. Doris Vollmer
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  2. Hans-Jürgen Butt
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Correspondence to Doris Vollmer or Hans-Jürgen Butt.

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Vollmer, D., Butt, HJ. Droplets leap into action. Nature 527, 41–42 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/527041a

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