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Abstract Drops are exceptionally mobile on lubricant-infused surfaces, yet they exhibit fundamentally different dynamics than on traditional superhydrophobic surfaces due to the formation of a wetting ridge around the drop. Despite the importance of the wetting ridge in controlling drop motion, it is unclear how it dissipates energy and changes shape during motion. Here, we use lattice Boltzmann simulations and confocal microscopy to image how the wetting ridge evolves with speed, and construct heatmaps to visualize where energy is dissipated on flat and rough lubricated surfaces. As speed increases, the wetting ridge height decreases according to a power law, and an asymmetry develops between the front and rear sides. Most of the dissipation in the lubricant ( >75%) occurs directly in front and behind the drop. The geometry of the underlying solid surface hardly affects the dissipation mechanism, implying that future designs should focus on optimizing the surface geometry to maximize lubricant retention.

Abstract Due to poor chemical robustness, superhydrophobic surfaces become susceptible to failure, especially in a highly oxidative environment. To ensure the long‐term efficacy of these surfaces, a more stable and environmentally friendly coating is required to replace the conventional salinization layers. Here, soot‐templated surfaces with re‐entrant nanostructures are precoated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) brushes. An additional nanometer‐thick lubricant layer of PDMS was then applied to increase chemical stability. The surface is superhydrophobic with a nanoscale liquid coating. Since the lubricant layer is thin, ridge formation is suppressed, which leads to low drop sliding friction and fast drop shedding. By introducing a bottom “reservoir” of a free lubricant as an oil source for self‐replenishing to the upper layer, the superhydrophobic surface becomes more stable and heals spontaneously in response to alkali erosion and O2 plasma exposure. This design also leads to a higher icing delay time and faster removal of impacting cooled water drops than for uncoated surfaces, preventing icing at low temperatures.