Choongyeop Lee

We study experimentally how two key geometric parameters (pitch and gas fraction) of textured hydrophobic surfaces affect liquid slip. The two are independently controlled on precisely fabricated microstructures of posts and grates, and the slip length of water on each sample is measured using a rheometer system. The slip length increases linearly with the pitch but dramatically with the gas fraction above 90%, the latter trend being more pronounced on posts than on grates. Once the surfaces are

Superhydrophobic (SHPo) surfaces have shown promise for passive drag reduction because their surface structures can hold a lubricating gas film between the solid surface and the liquid in contact with it. However, the types of SHPo surfaces that would produce any meaningful amount of reduction get wet under liquid pressure or at surface defects, both of which are unavoidable in the real world. In this Letter, we solve the above problem by (1) discovering surface structures that allow the restora

A gas in between micro- or nanostructures on a submerged superhydrophobic (SHPo) surface allows the liquid on the structures to flow with an effective slip. If large enough, this slippage may entail a drag reduction appreciable for many flow systems. However, the large discrepancies among the slippage levels reported in the literature have led to a widespread misunderstanding on the drag-reducing ability of SHPo surfaces. Today we know that the amount of slip, generally quantified with a slip le

In an effort to maximize the liquid slip on superhydrophobic surfaces, we investigate the role of the nanoscale roughness on microscale structures by developing well-defined micro-nano hierarchical structures. The nonwetting stability and slip length on the dual-scale micro-nano structures are measured and compared with those on single-scale micro-smooth structures. A force balance between a liquid pressure and a surface tension indicates that hydrophobic nanostructures on the sidewall of microp

Ion transport through nanopores drilled in thin membranes is central to numerous applications, including biosensing and ion selective membranes. This paper reports experiments, numerical calculations, and theoretical predictions demonstrating an unexpectedly large ionic conduction in solid-state nanopores, taking its origin in anomalous entrance effects. In contrast to naive expectations based on analogies with electric circuits, the surface conductance inside the nanopore is shown to perturb th

Despite the fact that superhydrophobic surfaces possess useful and unique properties, their practical application has remained limited by durability issues. Among those, the wetting transition, whereby a surface gets impregnated by the liquid and permanently loses its superhydrophobicity, certainly constitutes the most limiting aspect under many realistic conditions. In this study, we revisit this so-called Cassie-to-Wenzel transition (CWT) under the broadly encountered situation of liquid drop

Osmosis across membranes is intrinsically associated with the concept of semipermeability. Here, however, we demonstrate that osmotic flow can be generated by solute gradients across nonselective, fully permeable nanochannels. Using a fluorescence imaging technique, we are able to measure the water flow rate inside single nanochannels to an unprecedented sensitivity of femtoliters per minute flow rates. Our results indicate the onset of a convective liquid motion under salinity gradients, from t

We experimentally investigated the impact dynamics of a water drop on oil-infused nanostructured surfaces using high-speed microscopy and scalable metal oxide nano surfaces. The effects of physical properties of the oil and impact velocity on complex fluid dynamics during drop impact were investigated. We show that the oil viscosity does not have significant effects on the maximal spreading radius of the water drop, while it moderately affects the retraction dynamics. The oil viscosity also dete

We investigated how the surface hierarchy of superhydrophobic (SHPo) surfaces influences liquid slip by testing well-defined microposts that have nanoposts only on their top. Contrary to the commonly held belief, our results show that such hierarchical surfaces do not always lead to an increase of slip length despite their reduced solid fraction and enhanced hydrophobicity compared to single-scale surfaces. Adding nanoposts on top of the microposts resulted in an increase of slip length only if

When a droplet impacts a superhydrophobic sieve, a part of the droplet penetrates through it when the dynamic pressure (ρU²) of the impinging droplet exceeds the breakthrough pressure (γΓ/A). At higher impact velocities, the ejected-jet breaks and separates from the main droplet. The remaining part of the droplet bounces off the surface showing different modes (normal bouncing as a vertically elongated drop or pancake bouncing). In this work, we have studied the effect of different ge

Superhydrophobic (SHPo) surfaces can provide high condensation heat transfer due to facilitated droplet removal. However, such high performance has been limited to low supersaturation conditions due to surface flooding. Here, we quantify flooding resistance defined as the rate of increase in the fraction of water-filled cavities with respect to the supersaturation level. Based on the quantitative understanding of surface flooding, we suggest effective anti-flooding strategies through tailoring t

A membrane with selective wettability to either oil or water has been utilized for highly efficient, environmentally friendly membrane-based oil-water separation. However, a predictive model, which can be used to evaluate the overall separation performance of the membrane, still needs further development. Herein, we investigate three separation performance parameters, that is, separation efficiency, liquid intrusion pressure, and mass flux in particular, as a function of pore geometry and liquid

As genome data and bioinformatics resources grow exponentially in size and complexity, there is an increasing need for software that can bridge the gap between biologists with questions and the worldwide set of highly specialized tools for answering them. The GeneMine system for small- to medium-scale genome analysis provides: (1) automated analysis of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and protein sequence data using over 50 different analysis servers via the Internet, integrating data from homologous

The classical paradigm for osmotic transport has long related the induced-flow direction to the solute membrane interactions, with the low-to-high concentration flow a direct consequence of the solute rejection from the semipermeable membrane. In principle, the same was thought to occur for the newly demonstrated membrane-free osmotic transport named diffusio-osmosis. Using a recently proposed nanofluidic setup, we revisit this cornerstone of osmotic transport by studying the diffusio-osmotic fl