Display omitted •Three typical flow patterns of droplet impacting on single fiber were observed.•Four contact angle models in terms of wettability was employed in the simulation.•Droplet dispersion was intensified by increasing surface hydrophobicity. The impaction process of droplet on fiber (used as packing) including capture and dispersion is widely encountered in the multiphase reactors. Numerous studies have been conducted to illustrate the captured phenomena, while the phenomena and mechanism of dispersion are still unclear. In this work, the high-speed photography and computational fluid dynamics simulation were employed to investigate the dispersion phenomena of liquid droplet impacting on the single fiber with different wettabilities. Three flow patterns, named one-drop, one-film, and two-film dripping were observed from experimental results. Four contact angle models were implemented in the simulation. The gas–liquid interfacial area and energy utilization efficiency respectively increased from 1.85 to 3.38 times of initial area and from 1.97 % to 48.29 % when the contact angle increased from 45° to 155°. The results are of great significance to understand the dispersion phenomena as well as the enhanced dispersion efficiency of liquid in chemical reactors.