Textured surfaces are instrumental in water repellency or fluid wicking applications, where the pinning and depinning of the liquid–gas interface plays an important role. We demonstrate that a contact line can exhibit nonuniform behavior even without varying the local energy barrier. Around a cylindrical pillar, an interface can reside in an intermediate state where segments of the contact line are pinned to the pillar top while the rest of the contact line moves along the sidewall. This partially pinned mode is due to the global nonaxisymmetric pattern of the surface features and exists for all textured surfaces, especially when superhydrophobic surfaces are about to be flooded or when capillary wicks are close to dryout.
Related article: Langmuir 2017