Geometric potential: An explanation of nanofiber's wettability

Abstract

Similar to Casimir force, nanofibers have a potential that attracts water mole-cules, while the porosity of the nanofiber mat produces a repelling force. Wetting property of a nanofiber mat is a result of combination of the forces and gravity. A new concept, the geometric potential or the boundary-induced force, is intro-duced to elucidate the basic property of wetting. Various nanofiber mats with dif-ferent fiber morphologies are fabricated by the bubble electrospinning. The pa-per concludes that superhydrophobic properties of nanofiber mat depends upon mainly fiber morphology and porous structure of the mat, hydrophilic properties of ZnO nanorods will not affect the water contact angle much.