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A Study on the Forms and Self-cleaning Mechanism of the Scales on Butterfly Wing Surface
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Wettability is one of the important characteristics of solid surface,which is determined by surface chemical composition and morphological micro-structure.The super-hydrophobic surface is a surface on which the contact angle of water is above 150°.The fabrication of super-hydrophobic surface plays a remarkably important role and has wide application potential in basic researches such as surface chemistry,material chemistry,as well as industrial and agricultural production.In order to defense the disturbances of adverse factors such as wind,rain,fog,dew,dust,the anti-adhesion and dewetting ability were formed on the wing surface of butterfly through long-term evolution and natural selection.Self-cleaning function displays on the wing surface of butterfly.The wing scale surface of butterfly has periodic substrate structure and peculiar wettability,so is regarded as an ideal modeling surface for qualitative and quantitative studies on wetting phenomena.In this research,using stereoscopic micro vision analysis system,AxioVision,MIAPS image analysis software,video-based contact angle meter and scanning electron microscope,the forms and self-cleaning mechanism of the non-smooth surface on butterfly wing scale were studied.Micro- and ultra- investigations were conducted on the rough surface structures of 8 families,36 genera and 49 species butterflies.The indices of micro-class scale unit such as size,density were classified,the nano-class structures of scale surface were characterized qualitatively and quantitatively.Wing surface is made up by micro-class scales arranging like overlapping tiles.The scale surface is composed of nano-class vertical gibbosities and horizontal links.The length of butterfly wing scale is 65~150μm,width 35~105μm,distance 48~170μm,thickness 0.5~2.4μm.The height of vertical gibbosity on wing scale is 200~950 nm,width 200~880 nm,distance 1.06~2.95μm.No obvious rules are found for the scale sizes of butterflies in various genera and species.On micro-class,the forms of wing scale can be divided into four types,including angustifoliate shape,latifoliate shape,round-leaved shape,and spindle-like shape.On nano-class,the ultra-forms of wing scale can be divided into seven types,including arch bridge shape,chessboard shape,sieve pore shape,double-row sieve pore shape,coral-like shape,pinnule-like shape,and multi-row sieve pore shape.A systematic investigation on wettability of butterfly wing surface was conducted,including the effects of methanol and distilled water on surface wettability of butterfly wing surface,and the response of contact angle to change of methanol concentration on the wing scale of Polygonia c-aureum,the corresponding mechanism was analyzed.The static contact angles were measured on the wing surface of 8 families,36 genera and 49 species butterflies.The results showed that the butterfly wing surface is hydrophobic with contact angles 134.0°~163.5°.Super-hydrophobicity (contact angle>150°)was found on the wing surfaces of 11 species butterflies(22.4% of all species).Due to the presence of rough scale,the hydrophobicity of butterfly wing surface was improved,the contacts angles increased by 8.2%~41.0%.Methanol wetting test was conducted on the wing surfaces of 7 families,24 genera and 33 species butterflies.The wing surfaces of most butterflies(31 species)is hydrophobic and can resist the wetting of methanol with relatively lower concentration(55%).When methanol concentration reaches 70%,spreadingwetting occurs on the wing scale surfaces of Mimathyma schrenckii and Parnassius glacialis.When methanol concentration reaches 95%,spreadingwetting occurs on the wing scale surfaces of all the 33 butterfly species,the contact angle of droplet on wing scale surface decresed instantly to 0°.The wing surfaces of 5 butterfly species(Lycaeides argyrognomon,Polygonia c-aureum,Vanessa indica,Papilio maackii and Gonepteryx rhamni)are super-hydrophobic(contact angle>150°when methanol concentration is 55%,the contact angle is larger than 100°; meanwhile their wing surfaces can resist the spreadingwetting of methanol with relatively higher concentration(80%). Two methods,first-incline-then-drip method(FITD method)and first-drip-then-incline method(FDTI method),were adopted to measure the sliding angles(contact angle hysteresis)of water droplet on butterfly wing surfaces of 6 families,24 genera and 29 species butterflies.The butterfly wing surfaces has highly anisotropic characteristic ( forward sliding angles<3°,backward sliding angles>65°).For the same butterfly species,the sliding angles by first-incline-then-drip method are significantly smaller than those by first-drip-then-incline method in the same direction.In FITD method, forward SAs