Dynamic Behavior of Droplet Impact on Inclined Surfaces with Acoustic Waves

Droplet impact on arbitrary inclined surfaces is of great interest for applications such as antifreezing, self-cleaning, and anti-infection. Research has been focused on texturing the surfaces to alter the contact time and rebouncing angle upon droplet impact. In this paper, using propagating surface acoustic waves (SAWs) along the inclined surfaces, we present a novel technique to modify and control key droplet impact parameters, such as impact regime, contact time, and rebouncing direction. A high-fidelity finite volume method was developed to explore the mechanisms of droplet impact on the inclined surfaces assisted by SAWs. Numerical results revealed that applying SAWs modifies the energy budget inside the liquid medium, leading to different impact behaviors. We then systematically investigated the effects of inclination angle, droplet impact velocity, SAW propagation direction, and applied SAW power on the impact dynamics and showed that by using SAWs, droplet impact on the nontextured hydrophobic and inclined surface is effectively changed from deposition to complete rebound. Moreover, the maximum contact time reduction up to ∼50% can be achieved, along with an alteration of droplet spreading and movement along the inclined surfaces. Finally, we showed that the rebouncing angle along the inclined surface could be adjusted within a wide range.

Evaluation of bioactivities of zinc oxide, cadmium sulfide and cadmium sulfide loaded zinc oxide nanostructured materials prepared by nanosecond pulsed laser

The present study reports the preparation of cadmium sulfide (CdS) loaded zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured semiconductor material and its anti-bioactivity studies against cancerous and fungus cells. For composite preparation, two different mass ratios of CdS (10 and 20%) were loaded on ZnO (10%CdS/ZnO, 20%CdS/ZnO) using a 532 nm pulsed laser ablation in water media. The structural and morphological analyses confirmed the successful loading of nanoscaled CdS on the surface of ZnO particles, ZnO particles were largely spherical with average size ~50 nm, while CdS about 12 nm in size. The elemental and electron diffraction analyses reveal that the prepared composite, CdS/ZnO contained both CdS and ZnO, thus reaffirming the production of CdS loaded ZnO. The microscopic examination and MTT assay showed the significant impact of ZnO, CdS, and CdS loaded ZnO on human colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT-116 cells). Our results show that the prepared ZnO had better anticancer activities than individual CdS, and CdS loaded ZnO against cancerous cells. For antifungal efficacy, as-prepared nanomaterials were investigated against Candida albicans by examining minimum inhibitory/fungicidal concentration (MIC/MFC) and morphogenesis. The lowest MIC (0.5 mg/mL), and MFC values (1 mg/mL) were found for 10 and 20%CdS/ZnO. Furthermore, the morphological analyses reveal the severe damage of the cell membrane upon exposure of Candida strains to nanomaterials. The present study suggests that ZnO, CdS, and CdS loaded ZnO nanostructured materials possess potential anti-cancer and anti-fungal activities.

Graphene and Graphene/Polymer Composites as the Most Efficient Protective Coatings for Steel, Aluminum and Copper in Corrosive Media: A Review of Recent Studies

The metal corrosion is considered as a severe threat to the national economy and industry structure, capable of triggering significant economic losses and severe damages, involving innumerable fields in daily life and industries. This review provides an overview of the physioelectrochemical studies on anticorrosive properties of various types of graphene coatings. Required electrochemical techniques for the investigation of anticorrosive efficiency, various types of graphene-based materials coatings along with different routes to provide desirable coated layers are discussed in detail. After all, we intend to show that the modified graphene nanosheets can be regarded as effective protective layers against metal corrosion not only because of their extraordinary mechanical strength and toughness, which can be reached with a vastly thin layer, but also for their high transparency, cost-efficiency and stability.

Robust mold fabricated by femtosecond laser pulses for continuous thermal imprinting of superhydrophobic surfaces

Superhydrophobic surfaces rely on a large number of surface micro/nano structures to increase the roughness of a material. Producing such structures is possible through a multitude of relatively slow methods; however, economic and large scale production of superhydrophobic surfaces require using a fast process on a cheap substrate. Here, we used femtosecond laser processing to fabricate micro and nanostructures on tungsten carbide that we use as a mold to thermally imprint polypropylene sheets. The fabricated tungsten carbide mold was used to imprint more than twenty superhydrophobic polypropylene sheets before mold contamination reduces the surface contact angle below 150°.Using Toluene solution, the mold is subsequently capable of being cleaned of contamination from polypropylene residue and reused for further imprinting. Ninety thermoplastic imprints were conducted using a single tungsten carbide mold with only minimal structural degradation apparent on the micro/nano structured surface.

Facile Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Copper- Foam and Electrospinning Polystyrene Fiber for Combinational Oil⁻Water Separation

Membrane-based metal substrates with special surface wettability have been applied widely for oil/water separation. In this work, a series of copper foams with superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity were chemically etched using 10 mg mL⁻¹ FeCl₃/HCl solution with consequent ultrasonication, followed by the subsequent modification of four sulfhydryl compounds. A water contact angle of 158° and a sliding angle lower than 5° were achieved for the copper foam modified using 10 mM n-octadecanethiol solution in ethanol. In addition, the interaction mechanism was initially investigated, indicating the coordination between copper atoms with vacant orbital and sulfur atoms with lone pair electrons. In addition, the polymeric fibers were electrospun through the dissolution of polystyrene in a good solvent of chlorobenzene, and a nonsolvent of dimethyl sulfoxide. Oil absorption and collection over the water surface were carried out by the miniature boat made out of copper foam, a string bag of as-spun PS fibers with high oil absorption capacity, or the porous boat embedded with the as-spun fibers, respectively. The findings might provide a simple and practical combinational method for the solution of oil spill.

Thermomechanical Mechanisms of Reducing Ice Adhesion on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Superhydrophobic (SH) coatings have been shown to reduce freezing and ice nucleation rates, by means of low surface energy chemistry tailored with nano/micro roughness. Durability enhancement of SH surfaces is a crucial issue. Consequently, the present research on reducing ice adhesion is based on radiation-induced radical reaction for covalently bonding SiO2 nanoparticles to polymer coatings to obtain durable roughness. Results indicated that the proposed approach resulted in SH surfaces having high contact angles (>155°) and low sliding angles (<5°) with improved durability and transparency. In a subsequent stage, the synthesized SH coating was investigated for its icephobic characteristics using a variety of substrates. Results indicated that supercooled water drops bounced back when impinging on SH polycarbonate substrate and froze on SH copper substrate held at -10 to -30 °C and were easily peeled off when coated by ice formed during exposure to air/supercooled water drops at -20 °C. The ice shear adhesion investigation (at -20 °C) demonstrated reduction of shear adhesion to a variety of SH treated substrates having low thermal expansion coefficient (copper and aluminum) and high thermal expansion coefficient (polycarbonate and poly(methyl methacrylate)). It was concluded that the thermal mismatch between the adhering ice and the various substrates and its resultant interfacial thermal stresses affect the adhesion strength of the ice to the respective substrate.

Synchronous Generation of Nano- and Microscaled Hierarchical Porous Polyelectrolyte Multilayers for Superwettable Surfaces

We created both a superhydrophilic polymer surface and a superhydrophobic surface by using the poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) multilayers with the synchronously generated hierarchical porous surface structures. The formation of surface and pore structures induced at acidic pH values is subject to the composition, distribution, and molecular weights of polyelectrolytes in the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembled film, leading to a variety of unique surface topographies and porous structures located on different scales. During the porous induction at pH 2.0, both nano- and microscaled features synchronously developed on the surface as a result of the unique combination of high-molecular-weight PAH (900K g/mol) and low molecular weight PAA (15K g/mol), along with a much reduced deposition time of 1 min. Although thermally cross-linked, the porous surface with hierarchical structure could achieve superhydrophilicity due to the remaining free amine and carboxylate groups on the porous structures. A complete switch from the superhydrophilic to the superhydrophobic surface was achieved via a simple chemical vapor deposition of trichloro(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluoro-octyl)silane. In this work, the effects of molecular weight of polyelectrolytes (15K-900K g/mol), deposition time (10-900 s) during the LbL assembly, and pH (1.8 to 2.4) for the porous induction on the surface topography, pore structures, and wetting behavior were investigated in detail. A variety of unique porous surface structures on different length scales were systematically studied by controlling the above parameters.

Relationship between Wetting Hysteresis and Contact Time of a Bouncing Droplet on Hydrophobic Surfaces

The contact time of impacting water droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces directly reflects the extent of thermal and energy conversions between the water droplet and the surface, which is also considered to be crucial to the practical applications. The purpose of this study was to reveal the relationship between the contact time and the wetting hysteresis. We designed and fabricated six classes of surfaces with different extent of hydrophobicity through modifying the microscale/nanoscale hierarchical textured titanium surfaces with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrimethoxysilane, and we filmed the contact process of the water droplet impacting on these surfaces using a high-speed camera. It can be concluded that wetting hysteresis played a significant role in determining how long the impacting water droplet can bounce off the surface, based on the interfacial wetting mechanism and the work done against the resistance force generated by contact angle hysteresis during the dynamic process.

Nanostructures in superhydrophobic Ti6Al4V hierarchical surfaces control wetting state transitions

This paper mainly reports the wetting state of liquid droplets on a Ti6Al4V micro-nanoscale hierarchical structured hydrophobic surface. In this work, the detailed action mechanism of the secondary nanostructure in the hierarchical structure on the wetting-state transition (from the Wenzel state to the Cassie state) was revealed and discussed. The variation of micro-morphology of the sample surface was observed using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). Furthermore, the apparent contact angle and sliding angle of the droplets on the surfaces were measured via a contact angle measurement instrument. The theoretical and experimental results indicated that the one-dimensional nanowire structure, which was planted on the microstructure surface by the hydrothermal method, effectively changed the wetting state of liquid droplets on the surface from the Wenzel state to the Cassie state owing to its good size synergies with microscale structure. This process not only increased the apparent contact angle of liquid droplets on the solid surface (to 161°), but also decreased the sliding angle significantly (to 3°) and contact angle hysteresis (to ∼2°), demonstrating the robust non-wetting property.

Superhydrophobic nanocoatings: from materials to fabrications and to applications

Superhydrophobic nanocoatings, a combination of nanotechnology and superhydrophobic surfaces, have received extraordinary attention recently, focusing both on novel preparation strategies and on investigations of their unique properties. In the past few decades, inspired by the lotus leaf, the discovery of nano- and micro-hierarchical structures has brought about great change in the superhydrophobic nanocoatings field. In this paper we review the contributions to this field reported in recent literature, mainly including materials, fabrication and applications. In order to facilitate comparison, materials are divided into 3 categories as follows: inorganic materials, organic materials, and inorganic-organic materials. Each kind of materials has itself merits and demerits, as well as fabrication techniques. The process of each technique is illustrated simply through a few classical examples. There is, to some extent, an association between various fabrication techniques, but many are different. So, it is important to choose appropriate preparation strategies, according to conditions and purposes. The peculiar properties of superhydrophobic nanocoatings, such as self-cleaning, anti-bacteria, anti-icing, corrosion resistance and so on, are the most dramatic. Not only do we introduce application examples, but also try to briefly discuss the principle behind the phenomenon. Finally, some challenges and potential promising breakthroughs in this field are also succinctly highlighted.

Preparation of anti-corrosion superhydrophobic coatings by an Fe-based micro/nano composite electro-brush plating and blackening process

A method using Fe-based micro/nano composite electro-brush plating and subsequent modification with stearic acid was established for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces on A3 steel plates.

Preparation of lotus-like hierarchical microstructures on zinc substrate and study of its wettability

The main preparation process of the superhydrophobic surface and its anti-wettability effect.

One-step fabrication of a highly conductive and durable copper paste and its flexible dipole tag-antenna application

A novel approach to fabricate a highly conductive and durable Cu paste as a screen printing metal ink is explored using acid treatment and mechanical blending with corrosion inhibitors.

The effect of superhydrophobic wetting state on corrosion protection--the AKD example

Corrosion is of considerable concern whenever metal is used as construction material. In this study we address whether superhydrophobic coatings could be used as part of an environmentally friendly corrosion-protective system, and specific focus is put on how the wetting regime of a superhydrophobic coating affects corrosion inhibition. Superhydrophobic alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) wax coatings were produced, using different methods resulting in hierarchical structures, where the coatings exhibit the same surface chemistry but different wetting regimes. Contact angle measurements, ESEM, confocal Raman microscopy, open circuit potential and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used to evaluate the surfaces. Remarkably high impedance values of 10(10)Ω cm(2) (at 10(-2) Hz) were reached for the sample showing superhydrophobic lotus-like wetting. Simultaneous open circuit potential measurements suggest that the circuit is broken, most likely due to the formation of a thin air layer at the coating-water interface that inhibits ion transport from the electrolyte to the metal substrate. The remaining samples, showing superhydrophobic wetting in the rose state and hydrophobic Wenzel-like wetting, showed less promising corrosion-protective properties. Due to the absence of air films on these surfaces the coatings were penetrated by the electrolyte, which allowed the corrosion reaction to proceed.

Effect of superhydrophobicity on the barrier properties of polymethylene films

Superhydrophobic polymethylene (PM) films provide remarkable protection against the transport of aqueous redox probes as a result of entrapped air at the water/polymer interface. The wetting properties and the topography for a set of superhydrophobic (SH) and nonsuperhydrophobic (NSH) PM films were established to compare their interfacial behavior using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). EIS results show that SH PM films exhibit resistances against ion transfer that are approximately 3 orders of magnitude higher than those of NSH PM films. Rationalization of these results in the context of the Helmholtz theory reveals that the imaginary impedance or inverse capacitance of SH PM films exhibits positive deviations from that predicted by Helmholtz theory for smooth PM films. Here, we model the capacitance behavior of a SH film as a PM/air composite that acts as a circuit of capacitors. The resulting mathematical model of this analysis enables correlation of the effective dielectric properties of the film (d(effective), epsilon(effective)) to measurable properties such as thickness (d(film)) and the dielectric constant (epsilon(PM)) of the PM film. Finally, a sensitivity analysis shows that the limited contact area between the aqueous solution and PM in SH films is the primary reason for the enhancement in the barrier properties of the film.