ISSN Online: 2379-1748
ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-469-4
ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-470-0
Second Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference
SELF-CLEANING PROPERTIES VIA CONDENSATION ON SUPERHYDROPHOBIC SURFACES
要約
Recent research regarding superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces has been focused on the principles of condensation
on SH surfaces and the self-cleaning properties exhibited by SH surfaces. This research seeks to combine
and expand these two aspects of SH surfaces to investigate the efficiency of self-cleaning properties during
condensation. These SH surfaces are created by a combination of a SH chemical coating and nano-rib structure.
Surfaces were contaminated with sea salt, tobacco residue, and pollen, placed in a controlled humid
environment, and cooled below the dew point temperature. Condensed microdroplets were allowed to grow
and coalesce large enough to roll off the surface, removing from the surface all other condensed droplets in its
path and ideally all contaminates in that same path. The static contact angle (CA) and sliding angle (SA) were
measured before and after each condensation cycle and compared to the CA and SA of a clean surface that
had gone through similar condensation cycles. This data was used to then approximate the cleaning efficiency
of the SH surface. Furthermore, these measurements were compared to the CA and SA of contaminated surfaces
after a single droplet and multiple droplets rolled over the surface. From this study, we determine that
depending on the contaminate, condensed droplets that roll off a contaminated SH surface is a viable way to
remove contaminates from that SH surface.