Study of Nanoimprinting Plant Structures with Super Water Repellency

Abstract

The leaves of plants belonging to the Araceae family and to the Nelumbonaceae family, represented by the lotus leaf, are known to exhibit water repellency, a property attributed to a double roughness structure having nanostructures on the surface of the leaves. Past research efforts have examined biomimetic structures modeled on the structure of the lotus leaf. The present report presents the results of investigations of a lotus leaf structure transferred onto acrylic resin, made using a live plant as the original material instead of an engineered imitation. The results confirmed that the super water repellency derives from this structure.