Department of Applied Physics

Soft Matter and Wetting

Soft Matter and Wetting is a research group situated in the Aalto University Department of Applied Physics.

Spherical water droplets on a superhydrophobic surface partially submerged in water. The surface is gray copper colour, while the submerged part is silvery due to thin airfilm captured by the surface.

PUBLICATIONS: Soft Matter and Wetting group

Full list of publications.

A family portrait of ferrofluid drops under magnetic field

FACILITIES: Soft Matter and Wetting group

List of our research equipment and facilities.

Water droplet suspended on a micropillar surface

CODES: Soft Matter and Wetting group

Program codes published as part of our works.

Oscillating Droplet Tribometer. The most accurate characterization of your superhydrophobic surface.

Wetting characterization services offered by Soft Matter and Wetting group.

A ferrofluid droplet sitting on a measurement surface in the oscillating droplet tribometer measurement scheme. The magnet underneath the surface is also seen.

Photo of scanning droplet adhesion microscope's measurement probe above a butterfly wing

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Prof. Robin Ras, the head of Soft Matter and Wetting research group. Photo by Mikko Raskinen — Professor Robin Ras, the head of Soft Matter and Wetting research group. Photo by Mikko Raskinen

Robin Ras, Associate Professor

Researcher ID: F-7680-2010
ORCID: 0000-0002-2076-242X
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Robin's Bluesky: @robinras.bsky.social
Robin's Twitter: robin_ras
Robin's YouTube channel

Research group

Soft Matter and Wetting (SMW) is a multidisciplinary research group consisting of physicists and chemists. We are interested in functional soft materials and the wettability of surfaces. Many of the materials we work on are inspired by nature, such as extremely water-repellent biological surfaces that provide the basis for synthetic superhydrophobicity.

ERC Consolidator grant / ERC Proof-of-Concept grant

The leader of the SMW group, Professor Robin Ras, has received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The topic of this five-year project is "Superslippery Liquid-Repellent Surfaces".

Research highlight

We developed a new concept for durable superhydrophobic surfaces by structuring surfaces at two different length scales. The microstructure is an interconnected surface frame that protects highly water-repellent and mechanically fragile nanostructures. Water repellency of the resulting superhydrophobic surfaces is preserved even after abrasion by sandpaper and by a sharp steel blade.

Wang D., Sun Q., Hokkanen M.J., Zhang C., Lin F.-Y., Liu Q., Zhu S.-P., Zhou T., Chang Q., He B., Zhou Q., Chen L., Wang Z., Ras R.H.A., Deng X.
Design of Robust Superhydrophobic Surfaces
Nature 582, 55–59 (2020) (link) (PDF view only) (press release)