Superhydrophobic Surfaces Bioinspired by Notonecta Glauca:

the Nature, the Design and the Application

Eman Mousa Alhajji

North Carolina State University
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
MSE 300 (Structure of Materials at the Nanoscale)
Dr. Donald Brenner
November 2nd 2016

Nature is an amazing source full of solutions to the most challenging engineering

problems. Over geological period, existing organisms have developed well-adapted structures

and materials at micro-nanoscales through natural synthesis. Some of the wonderful functions

that nature has engineered are self-healing, ecological resistance, self-assembly and

hydrophobicity. 1 With regard to hydrophobicity, plans and animals have evolved surfaces with

special wettability ranging from very high greasy to high gluey surfaces, depending on their

environments and needs. 2

The wettability of surface is measured by the contact angle which a water droplet forms

when it is put on a surface. A surface that is attracted to water, forming a very small contact

angle, is scientifically known as a hydrophilic surface. In contrast, a surface that is repelled from

a mass of water, forming a large contact angle, is called a hydrophobic surface. Moreover, a

superhydrophobic surface is commonly defined as a surface with water contact angle greater

than 150 , which is extremely difficult to wet. 2 From a materials science viewpoint,

superhydrophobicity is a desirable property for fluid transport, textiles, anti-corrosion and optical

1
materials for its abilities to self-clean and to retain an air film to reduce friction while a material

is submerged under water. 1,2,3 Such a desirable property is found naturally in Notonecta glauca,

an insect that can effectively live under the surface of the water with unwettable body as

illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Lateral view on the water bug Notonecta glauca. 3

Notonecta glauca is a type of backswimmer, swimming and resting on its back under the

surface of water. The body of Notonecta glauca is covered with furry structures with exception

of head, pronotum and legs. Notonecta glauca uses its legs and the back end of its abdomen to

create water tension, which enables it to stay attached under the surface of water. 2,3 The body

parts exhibit a large diversity of surface structures. Nevertheless, two types of surface bumps

occur on Notonecta glauca: large and sparse setae as well as small and dense microtrichia. Setae

have a hole originating from a neighboring cell and are categorized as true hairs whereas

microtrichia originating from one cell and are not considered really hairs. 3 Researchers have

found that the upper side of the elytra of Notonecta glauca has tiny dense microtrichia and two

types of larger shaped setae, as shown in Figure 2. (E, F). 3 These hierarchical unique structures

allow Notonecta glauca to create a superhydrophobic coating for longer than 130 days. As a

result, the superhydrophobic coating on the surface of Notonecta glauca enables it to breath

2
atmosphere air and reduce friction of its body when it slides over water. The theory beyond the

hierarchical micro-nano structures is explained by Cassie's law, which states that the contact

angle of a material is increased by roughening the surface by micro-nano grooves. 2

Figure 2. Body parts of Notonecta glauca: A,B) setae on the abdominal sternites; C,D) underside

of the elytra with a dense cover of microtrichia; E,F) upper side of elytra with a hierarchical

double structure of microtrichia and setae. 3

In general, when engineers attempt to fabricate a biomimetic superhydrophobic surface,

two factors are considered: a low surface energy of the material and a roughened surface. 2 With

these two factors, various methods have been developed for the wide-ranging fabrication of

superhydrophobic surfaces. An effective method for the production of superhydrophobic

materials with a variety of shapes and morphologies is hydrothermal reaction. In hydrothermal

reaction, the superhydrophobicity of nanolamellar structures on silicon, titanium or zinc surfaces

can be obtained by spin coating the surface with vinyl-terminated PDMS after physical
3
modification. 2,4 Other suitable and economical methods to produce superhydrophobic surfaces

are self-assembly and layer-by-layer assembly. These two methods allow the accurate control of

the finely tailored film growth that occurs as part of the formation process in which oppositely

charged thin films are deposited in layers. The defined parameters of the process can be easily

controlled to generate hierarchical micro and nanostructures. 2,4 Indeed, the hierarchical structure,

micro roughness covered with nano roughness, is not only required for a high contact angle but

also essential for the stability of the water-solid and water-air interfaces. 3

The effectiveness of the fabricated biomimetic superhydrophobic surfaces can be tested

by preforming contact angle measurements and by optically detecting air film persistence

through light reflection at the water-air interface. 3 Some interesting applications of a material

designed to mimic the unique superhydrophobicity resulted from the hierarchically micro-

nanostructured surfaces in Notonecta glauca are low friction fluid transport and drag reduction

on ship hulls. 2,3 Low friction and drag reduction conserve an enormous amount of energy used in

transportations, which in turn has significant economic and environmental advantages.

In conclusion, Notonecta glauca is a great model for materials scientists and engineers to

biomimic superhydrophobic surfaces that give outstanding air retention and friction reduction.

Such extreme anti-wetting surfaces can be achieved by combining micro-nanostructured surfaces

with low surface energy of materials. Nature has provided many valuable insights and biological

solutions to very complex engineering problems and it continues to inspire engineers in the

innovation of multifunctional surfaces. 1,2

4
References

1
J. Lei and F. Lin, Bioinspired Intelligent Nanostructured Interfacial Materials (2010), pp 15-25.

2
E.P. Ivanova and R.J. Crawford, Superhydrophobic Surfaces, Elsevier (2015), pp 7-45.

3
P. Ditsche-Kuru, E.S. Schneider, J.-E. Melskotte, M. Brede, A. Leder, and W. Barthlott,

Beilstein, Superhydrophobic surfaces of the water bug Notonecta glauca: a model for friction

reduction and air retention, Journal of Nanotechnology 2, 137 (2011).

4
E. Celia, T. Darmanin, E.T.D. Givenchy, S. Amigoni, and F. Guittard, Recent advances in

designing superhydrophobic surfaces, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 402, 1 (2013).