Measuring air layer volumes retained by submerged floating-ferns Salvinia and biomimetic superhydrophobic surfaces

• Matthias J. Mayser,
• Holger F. Bohn,
• Meike Reker and
• Wilhelm Barthlott

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 812–821, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.93

• also allows to measure decrease or increase of air layers with high accuracy in real-time to understand dynamic processes. Keywords: air layer; biomimetic; drag reduction; functional surfaces; plastron; Salvinia effect; volume measurement; Introduction Since the description of hierarchically

• was performed on a Cambridge Stereoscan 200 SEM (Zeiss GmbH, Oberkochen, Germany) with digital image processing unit (DISS 5, Point electronic GmbH, Halle, Germany) at acceleration voltages of 15 kV for the replicas and 10 kV for the plant material. The leaf surface area was acquired after the volume

• measurement by scanning the flattened leaf with a flat bed scanner (Canon 4200F, Canon Inc., Japan) and measuring the leaf area on the image according to a calibration grid. A digital light microscope (VHX-1000, Keyence, Japan) was used to measure the trichome dimensions of the examined Salvinia species