Numerical and analytical study of the impinging and bouncing phenomena of droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces with microtextured structures

Large-Area Preparation of a Robust Superamphiphobic Coating for Chemical Mechanical Polishing Application

In the chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process, the abrasive particles in the polishing slurry tend to agglomerate easily and crystallize on the equipment surfaces during recycling, which can lead to poor wafer processing quality and additional tedious cleaning work. To overcome this issue, a simple and cost-effective self-cleaning surface preparation method has been developed. In this study, elastic and stretchable hydroxyl polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS-OH) was selected as the functional material, it was chelated with pentaerythritol tetra(3-mercapto propionate), and then 2-(perfluorooctyl)ethyl methacrylate was further grafted in situ to the polymer chains via a photoinduced thiol-ene click reaction. Hydrophobically modified micronanoscale silica particles were used to construct robust hierarchical micronanostructures while imparting stable mechanical wear resistance to the coating. The resulting superamphiphobic film exhibits the "lotus effect" and exceptional self-cleaning ability, repelling liquids such as water, hexadecane, and polishing slurry. Furthermore, the coating demonstrated outstanding chemical resistance and antifouling ability. Thus, it provides a feasible solution for preventing abrasive crystallization at critical locations where the polishing slurry flows in the CMP equipment. This work contributes to the enhanced application of superrepellent coatings in the CMP stage of semiconductor material processing.

Wetting Properties of Simulated and Commercial Contaminants on High Transmittance Superhydrophobic Coating

The large and necessary diffusion of huge solar plants in extra urban areas implies the adoption of maintenance strategies especially where human intervention would require high costs and logistic problems. Animal dejections like bird droppings and agricultural sprays are environmental agents able to significantly decrease light absorption and, in some cases, cause serious damage to the electric conversion systems in a photovoltaic panel. In this work, the performance of a superhydrophobic (SH) coating in terms of durable self-cleaning properties and transparency has been studied in the presence of commercial and simulated contaminants on glass reference and solar panel surfaces. Wettability studies have been carried out both in static and dynamic conditions in order to compare the compositional effect of commercial liquids used as fertilizers or pesticides and molecules like pancreatin as model substances simulating bird droppings. From these studies, it can be observed that the superhydrophobic coating, independently from the surface where it is applied, is able to repel water and substances used such as fertilizers or pesticides and substances simulating bird droppings, maintaining its properties and transparency. This kind of approach can provide information to design suitable spray formulations without the above-mentioned drawbacks to be used in natural environment areas and agrosolar plants.

Comparative Study on the Spreading Behavior of Oil Droplets over Teflon Substrates in Different Media Environments

This paper comparatively investigated the spreading process of an oil droplet on the surface of highly hydrophobic solid (Teflon) in air and water media using a high-speed imaging technology, and analyzed their differences in spreading behavior from the perspective of empirical relations and energy conservation. Furthermore, the classical HD and MKT wetting models were applied to describe the oil droplet spreading dynamics to reveal the spreading mechanism of oil droplets on the Teflon in different media environments. Results showed that the entire spreading process of oil droplets on Teflon in air could be separated into three stages: the early linear fast spreading stage following θ(t)=θ0+kt , the intermediate exponential slow spreading stage obeying θ(t)=bt−3α, and the late spreading stage described by θ(t)=θeq+a×exp(−t/T). However, the dynamics behavior of dynamic contact angle during the oil droplet spreading on Teflon in water could be well described by these expressions, θ(t)=θ0+kt and θ(t)=θeq+a×exp(−t/T). Clearly, a significant difference in the oil droplet spreading behavior in air and water media was found, and the absence of the intermediate exponential spreading stage in the oil–water–Teflon system could be attributed to the difference in the dissipated energy of the system because the dissipation energy in the oil–water–solid system included not only the viscous dissipation energy of the boundary layer of oil droplet, but also that of the surrounding water which was not included in the dissipation energy of the oil–air–solid system. Moreover, the quantitative analysis of wetting models suggested that the MKT model could reasonably describe the late spreading dynamics of oil droplets (low TPCL velocities), while the HD model may be more suitable for describing the oil droplet spreading dynamics at the early and intermediate spreading stages (high TPCL velocities).

Advances in the development of superhydrophobic and icephobic surfaces

Superhydrophobicity and icephobicity are governed by surface chemistry and surface structure. These two features signify a potential advance in surface engineering and have recently garnered significant attention from the research community. This review aims to simulate further research in the development of superhydrophobic and icephobic surfaces in order to achieve their wide-spread adoption in practical applications. The review begins by establishing the fundamentals of the wetting phenomenon and wettability parameters. This is followed by the recent advances in modeling and simulations of the response of superhydrophobic surfaces to static and dynamic droplets contact and impingement, respectively. In view of their versatility and multifunctionality, a special attention is given to the development of these surfaces using nanocomposites. Furthermore, the review considers advances in icephobicity, its comprehensive characterization and its relation to superhydrophobicity. The review also includes the importance of the use of superhydrophobic surface to combat viral and bacterial contamination that exist in fomites.

Droplet impact on pillar-arrayed non-wetting surfaces

Droplet impact on pillar-arrayed polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces with different solid fractions was studied. The lower and upper limits of Weber number, We, for complete rebound of impacting droplets decreased with decreasing solid fractions. Gaps were visible during the spreading and retraction processes of bouncing droplets on the surface with a solid fraction of 0.06 while no gaps were observed during the retraction process when We was greater than its upper limit, indicating that there existed a transition from the Cassie-Baxter wetting state to the Wenzel wetting state. Therefore, a novel model accounting for the penetration of a liquid into the cavities between the pillars was developed to predict the upper limit of the impact velocity of bouncing droplets. At high We, partial rebound was observed for surfaces with solid fractions of 0.50 and 0.20 while a sticky state was observed for the surface with a solid fraction of 0.06. Moreover, surface roughness has a great influence on the contact time of bouncing droplets. Besides, the maximum spreading parameter was found to follow a scaling law of We^1/4.

Droplet Dynamics and Freezing Delay on Nanoporous Microstructured Surfaces at Condensing Environment

Superhydrophobic surfaces have aroused great interest for being promising candidates in applications such as self-cleaning, anti-icing, and corrosion resistance. However, most of the superhydrophobic surfaces lose their anti-wettability in low surface temperature and high humidity. The loss of superhydrophobicity by condensed liquid is a very common practical incident, yet to be understood properly. Here we report the wettability of the superhydrophobic nanoporous surfaces in condensation and freezing environments. Various structured surfaces fabricated with carbon nanotubes (CNT) and coated by an ultrathin, conformal, and low surface energy layer of poly (1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecylacrylate) (pPFDA) are exploited in humid conditions. Droplet impact dynamics, condensate characteristics, and freezing time delays are investigated on the CNT micropillars with various geometries along with the CNT forest and two commercially available anti-wetting coatings, NeverWet and WX2100. Nanoporous microstructured CNT pillars with the favorable topological configuration demonstrated complete droplet bouncing, significant freezing delays, and considerable durability during several icing/de-icing cycles. This study provides an understanding on the preferable geometry of the highly porous CNT micropillars for retaining hydrophobicity and preventing ice formation, which is of practical importance for the rational development of anti-wetting surfaces and their applications in low temperatures and humid conditions.

Critical and Optimal Wall Conditions for Coalescence-Induced Droplet Jumping on Textured Superhydrophobic Surfaces

The effectiveness of coalescence-induced jumping of microdroplets on superhydrophobic surfaces is critical to a wide range of applications such as self-cleaning surfaces, anti-icing/frosting, water harvesting, phase-change heat transfer, and hotspot cooling. Introducing textures on the surfaces can readily enlarge the effective contact angle, while an overlarge texture spacing may unfavorably lead to droplet penetration into the gaps in droplet coalescence processes. To clarify the effect of surface textures on the droplet jumping dynamics, we simulated the coalescence of droplets on textured superhydrophobic surfaces with various surface wettability and texture spacings and theoretically derived the critical conditions of jumping and the optimal condition of maximum jumping velocity. The results show that the nonmonotonic emergence of "nonjumping"-"jumping"-"nonjumping" with decreasing solid fraction is synergistically controlled by the surface adhesion and the effective impinging pressure. At a large solid fraction, the transition from "nonjumping" to "jumping" is caused by the reduction of the dimensionless surface adhesion energy below a critical value, which is determined to be 0.035 for Oh = 0.02 and 0.01 for Oh = 0.12. At a small solid fraction, the transition from "jumping" to "nonjumping" is dominated by the reduction of the dimensionless effective impinging pressure, the critical value of which is identified to be 0.14 and is independent of Oh. Moreover, jumping velocity maximizes when wetting critically transits from the Cassie-Baxter (CB) state to the partial-wetting state, and a penetration index is proposed from the wetting theory to predict such transition, which shows good agreement with both present simulations and previous experiments. The present findings are helpful for the design of superhydrophobic surfaces that pursue robust and efficient jumping of droplets.

Effect of superamphiphobic macrotextures on dynamics of viscous liquid droplets

The ability of hydrophobic surfaces to repel impinging liquid droplets is important in applications ranging from self-cleaning of solar panels to avoiding ice formation in freezing rain environments. In quest of maximizing water repellency, modification of droplet dynamics and subsequent reduction of contact time have been achieved by incorporating macrotexture on the superhydrophobic surfaces. However, the dynamics of low temperature water, and other viscous liquid droplets impacting anti-wetting surfaces with macrotextures is not well explored. Here, we investigate the effect of viscosity on the bouncing dynamics of liquid droplets impacting macrotextured superamphiphobic surfaces using various glycerol-water mixtures as model liquids at different impacting conditions. We demonstrate that the changes of reduction in contact times by macrotextures due to the increasing viscosity are in opposite trends at low and at high impact velocities. Since macrotexture executes substantial contact time reduction for the droplets which exhibit splitting after the impact, a preliminary model for predicting the minimum impact velocity to observe droplet splitting by macrotexture is proposed considering the important parameters of an impinging droplet along with the surface characteristics and the macrotexture size. This work aims to provide an insight on several possible outcomes of viscous droplets impacting on the macrotextured surfaces and a model that will help to design the desired superamphiphobic surfaces capable of exhibiting reduced contact time and enhanced repellency of low-temperature water droplets (such as freezing rain) and other viscous liquids (such as oils) under different impacting conditions.

Nonwettable Hierarchical Structure Effect on Droplet Impact and Spreading Dynamics

In this study, the nano/micro hierarchical structure effect of a nonwettable surface on droplet impact was investigated by high-speed visualization. A dual-scale structure of a superhydrophobic surface was designed for manipulating a wide range of capillary pressures (10³-10⁶ Pa), and it was supposed to trigger a hierarchical effect on the droplet dynamics. Distilled water droplets of various sizes and initial velocity were subjected to the prepared samples, and the impact behavior, the spreading diameter, and contacted time, were quantitatively measured. The apparent maximum spreading and contact time of the low Weber number ( We#) condition was less dependent on the microscaled design factor of the multiscale-fabricated surface. However, in the high We# condition, the wavy formation shape and the fragmented criteria of the droplet impact were affected by the configuration of the surface morphology. The hierarchical effect from the dual-scale structure on droplet spreading dynamics has been discussed through a balance between capillary pressure induced by the structure and the dynamic pressure of droplet impact.

Droplet Bouncing and Breakup during Impact on a Microgrooved Surface

We experimentally investigate the impact dynamics of a microliter water droplet on a hydrophobic microgrooved surface. The surface is fabricated using photolithography, and high-speed visualization is employed to record the time-varying droplet shapes in the transverse and longitudinal directions. The effect of the pitch of the grooved surface and Weber number on the droplet dynamics and impact outcome are studied. At low pitch and Weber number, the maximum droplet spreading is found to be greater in the longitudinal direction than the transverse direction to the grooves. The preferential spreading inversely scales with the pitch at a given Weber number. In this case, the outcome is no bouncing (NB); however, this changes at larger pitch or Weber number. Under these conditions, the following outcomes are obtained as a function of the pitch and Weber number: droplet completely bounces off the surface (CB), bouncing occurs with droplet breakup (BDB), or no bouncing because of a Cassie to Wenzel wetting transition (NBW). In BDB and NBW, the liquid partially or completely penetrates the grooves beneath the droplet as a result of the wetting transition. The former results in droplet breakup alongside bouncing, while the latter suppresses the bouncing. These outcomes are demarcated on the Weber number-dimensionless pitch plane, and the proposed regime map suggests the existence of a critical Weber number or pitch for the transition from one regime to the other. CB and BDB are quantified by plotting the coefficient of restitution of the bouncing droplet and the volume of the daughter droplet left on the surface, respectively. The critical Weber number needed for the transition from CB to BDB is estimated using an existing mathematical model and is compared with the measurements. The comparison is good and provides insights into the mechanism of liquid penetration into the grooves. The present results on microgrooved surfaces are compared with published results on micropillared surfaces in order to assess the water-repelling properties of the two surfaces.

Following or Against Topographic Wettability Gradient: Movements of Droplets on a Micropatterned Surface

Two kinds of possible movements of droplets (i.e., following or against the topographic wettability gradient) on a micropatterned surface are investigated by using a particle-based method: many-body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD). The displacement along the wettability gradient and contact angles on both sides of the droplet are analyzed. The results show that the migration trajectory of the droplet is determined by the coexistence of Cassie and Wenzel states and the unbalanced Young's force, which are related to the impact velocity, pillar height, and surface tension. The droplet remains in the Cassie state and advances spontaneously following the wettability gradient under a small impact velocity, high pillar height, and large surface tension. On the contrary, when the coexistence of Cassie and Wenzel states appears, the contact line on the side of the Cassie state retracts and that on the side of the Wenzel state pins, inducing droplet movement against the wettability gradient. Additionally, the critical impinging velocity, which determines the migration direction of the droplet, also depends on the pillar height and surface tension. The outcomes are helpful in designing surfaces with topographical wettability gradients for droplet transportation.

Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Droplets Impacting on Superhydrophobic Surfaces with Randomly Distributed Rough Structures

Superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted much attention in environmental control because of their excellent water-repellent properties. A successful design of superhydrophobic surfaces requires a correct understanding of the influences of surface roughness on water-repellent behaviors. Here, a new approach, a mesoscale lattice Boltzmann simulation approach, is proposed and used to model the dynamic behavior of droplets impacting on surfaces with randomly distributed rough microstructures. The fast Fourier transformation method is used to generate non-Gaussian randomly distributed rough surfaces, with the skewness and kurtosis obtained from real surfaces. Then, droplets impacting on the rough surfaces are modeled. It is found that the shape of droplet spreading is obviously affected by the distributions of surface asperity. Decreasing the skewness and keeping the kurtosis around 3 is an effective method to enhance the ability of droplet rebound. The new approach gives more detailed insights into the design of superhydrophobic surfaces.

Self-cleaning of Surfaces: the Role of Surface Wettability and Dust Types

The self-cleaning property is usually connected to superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs) where the dust particles can be easily removed by the rolling motion of droplets. It seems that superhydrophobicity (its durability is questionable nowadays) is a necessity. However here, it is disclosed that self-cleaning can also be realized on an ordinary surface by droplet impinging. The effects of surface wettability and the types of dust particles are considered. The self-cleaning is realized by two steps: (1) the pickup of particles by the water-air interface of an impinging droplet, (2) the release of the impinging droplets from the surface. It can be observed that only the trailing edges of the droplets can pick up particles when the droplets recoil from the inclined surfaces. The hydrophilic surface can also achieve self-cleaning under some conditions. This interesting finding may be helpful for the successful implementation of self-cleaning with common surfaces.

Is a Knowledge of Surface Topology and Contact Angles Enough to Define the Drop Impact Outcome?

It is well known that a superhydrophobic surface may not be able to repel impacting droplets because of the so-called Cassie-to-Wenzel transition. It has been proven that a critical value of the receding contact angle (θR) exists for the complete rebound of water, recently experimentally measured to be 100° for a large range of impact velocities. On the contrary, in the present work, no rebound was observed when low-surface-tension liquids such as hexadecane (σ = 27.5 mN/m at 25 °C) are concerned, even for very low impact velocities and very high values of θR and low contact angle hysteresis. Therefore, the critical threshold of θR ≈ 100° does not sound acceptable for all liquids and for all hydrophobic surfaces. For the same Weber numbers, a Cassie-to-Wenzel state transition occurs after the impact as a result of the easier penetration of low-surface-tension fluids in the surface structure. Hence, a criterion for the drop rebound of low-surface-tension liquids must consider not only the contact angle values with surfaces but also their surface tension and viscosity. This suggests that, even if it is possible to produce surfaces with enhanced static repellence against oils and organics, generally the realization of synthetic materials with self-cleaning and antisticking abilities in dynamic phenomena, such as spray impact, remains an unsolved task. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the chemistry of the surface, the physicochemical interactions with the liquid drops, and the possible wettability gradient of the surface asperity also play important roles in determining the critical Weber number above which impalement occurs. Therefore, the classical numerical simulations of drop impact on dry surfaces are definitively not able to capture the final outcomes of the impact for all possible fluids if the surface topology and chemistry and/or the wettability gradient in the surface structure are not properly reflected.

Efficient modelling of droplet dynamics on complex surfaces

This work investigates the dynamics of droplet interaction with smooth or structured solid surfaces using a novel sharp-interface scheme which allows the efficient modelling of multiple dynamic contact lines. The liquid-gas and liquid-solid interfaces are treated in a unified context and the dynamic contact angle emerges simply due to the combined action of the disjoining and capillary pressure, and viscous stresses without the need of an explicit boundary condition or any requirement for the predefinition of the number and position of the contact lines. The latter, as it is shown, renders the model able to handle interfacial flows with topological changes, e.g. in the case of an impinging droplet on a structured surface. Then it is possible to predict, depending on the impact velocity, whether the droplet will fully or partially impregnate the structures of the solid, or will result in a 'fakir', i.e. suspended, state. In the case of a droplet sliding on an inclined substrate, we also demonstrate the built-in capability of our model to provide a prediction for either static or dynamic contact angle hysteresis. We focus our study on hydrophobic surfaces and examine the effect of the geometrical characteristics of the solid surface. It is shown that the presence of air inclusions trapped in the micro-structure of a hydrophobic substrate (Cassie-Baxter state) result in the decrease of contact angle hysteresis and in the increase of the droplet migration velocity in agreement with experimental observations for super-hydrophobic surfaces. Moreover, we perform 3D simulations which are in line with the 2D ones regarding the droplet mobility and also indicate that the contact angle hysteresis may be significantly affected by the directionality of the structures with respect to the droplet motion.