[en] Molecular dynamic simulations were performed to examine the wetting behavior of a graphite surface textured with nanoscale pillars. The contact angle of a water droplet on parallelepiped or dome-shaped pillars was investigated by systematically varying the height and width of the pillar and the spacing between pillars. An optimal inter-pillar spacing that gives the highest contact angle was found. The droplet on the dome-covered surface was determined to be more mobile than that on the surface covered with parallelepiped pillars

[en] Highlights: • Water confined between a spherical tip and a plate was theoretically studied. • Lattice gas Monte Carlo simulation on the dewetting transition of confined water. • Atomic scale roughness significantly affects the dewetting transition. Using lattice gas Monte Carlo simulations, we studied the dewetting transition of water confined between a spherical tip and a plate, which is relevant to atomic force microscopy measurements conducted in water. The dewetting transition was investigated by varying the tip-plate distance, tip size, and the pressure of water. With introduction of an atomic scale roughness (1 < nm) in the tip and the plate, the dewetting transition significantly increased in range and yielded an enhanced hydrophobic force between the tip and the plate. This finding is in agreement with the experimental results previously reported by Singh et al.