Surfactants and wetting at superhydrophobic surfaces: water solutions and non aqueous liquids.

Wetting studies regarding amphiphilic molecules and adsorption properties on highly water repellent solid surfaces play key roles in research and technology, with increasing interest both in fundamental and application fields. Nevertheless the wetting properties of aqueous surfactant solutions, non aqueous liquids or immiscible phases on superhydrophobic (SH) solid surfaces have been so far rarely investigated. In this work the authors give an overview on this topic reviewing the literature available together with preliminary results concerning the influence of the distribution properties of surfactants between two immiscible phases. Transition between wetting states can be also considered a possible development of these studies based on switching mechanisms.