Experimental debate on the overlooked fundamental concepts in surface wetting and topography vs. ice adhesion strength relationships

HYPOTHESIS

Relating surface characteristics (especially wetting and topography) and ice adhesion strength (IAS) have a long history. Several wetting parameters correlated with IAS have been introduced. However, subsequent efforts to repeat these correlations have produced contradictory results. A comprehensive literature survey on this topic reveals significant shortcomings in applying appropriate wetting and topography fundamental concepts and techniques. Inaccurate arguments are seen to be utilized in establishing wetting vs. IAS relationships, and even seemingly identical test methods are fundamentally inconsistent.

EXPERIMENTS

This study first provides a thorough summary of all wetting and topography parameters reported to have a link with IAS. Then, it assesses a large and diverse set of surfaces regarding these wetting parameters (utilizing optical and force-based methods) and topography parameters (using techniques with different scales and resolutions). Finally, the correlation of these parameters with shear IAS is evaluated.

FINDINGS

The findings shed light on the factual and conceptual errors that cause occasional irreproducible relationships with IAS. For instance, the renowned relationship between the practical work of adhesion [∝(1+cosθrec)] and shear IAS is disputed due to fundamentally flawed assumptions. A potential wetting parameter for correlating to shear IAS on smooth non-soft surfaces in the wettability range of θadv,θrec<120° was identified, i.e., the tilting-obtained trigonometric contact angle hysteresis (i.e., [Formula: see text] ). Numerical correlations, geometrical similarities, and fundamental principles support the plausible link of this wetting parameter to shear IAS.

Mussel-Inspired Durable TiO2/PDA-Based Superhydrophobic Paper with Excellent Self-Cleaning, High Chemical Stability, and Efficient Oil/Water Separation Properties

Oceanic oil spill and the discharge of industrial oily wastewaters can cause significant threats to the ecological environment and human health. Herein, we design a durable TiO₂/PDA-based superhydrophobic paper for efficient oil/water separation. Bioinspired from mussel adhesive proteins, the mechanical durability of the as-prepared superhydrophobic paper is enhanced by the deposition of polydopamine (PDA) onto cellulosic fibers via self-polymerization of dopamine. The TiO₂/PDA-based superhydrophobic paper shows a high water contact angle of 168.2° and an oil contact angle of ∼0°, exhibiting excellent superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. Furthermore, the as-prepared superhydrophobic paper possesses excellent chemical stability, thermal stability, and mechanical durability in terms of being immersed in corrosive solutions and solvents and boiling water and being subjected to the sandpaper abrasion test, respectively. More importantly, the separation efficiency of the TiO₂/PDA-based superhydrophobic paper for an oil/water mixture is 97.2%, and it maintains a separation efficiency above 94.3% even after 15 cyclic separation processes. Furthermore, the separation efficiency for water-in-oil emulsions is higher than 93.7% after 15 cyclic separation tests, showing its excellent recyclable stability for water-in-oil emulsions. Therefore, the rationally designed TiO₂/PDA-based superhydrophobic paper shows great potential in the practical applications of self-cleaning, antifouling, and oil/water separation.

Facile Preparation of Robust Superhydrophobic/Superoleophilic TiO2-Decorated Polyvinyl Alcohol Sponge for Efficient Oil/Water Separation

Oily wastewater and oil spills pose a threat to the environment and human health, and porous sponge materials are highly desired for oil/water separation. Herein, we design a new superhydrophobic/superoleophilic TiO₂-decorated polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) sponge material for efficient oil/water separation. The TiO₂-PVA sponge is obtained by firmly anchoring TiO₂ nanoparticles onto the skeleton surface of pristine PVA sponge via the cross-linking reactions between TiO₂ nanoparticles and H₃BO₃ and KH550, followed by the chemical modification of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane. The as-prepared TiO₂-PVA sponge shows a high water contact angle of 157° (a sliding angle of 5.5°) and an oil contact angle of ∼0°, showing excellent superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. The TiO₂-PVA sponge exhibits excellent chemical stability, thermal stability, and mechanical durability in terms of immersing it in the corrosive solutions and solvents, boiling it in water, and the sandpaper abrasion test. Moreover, the as-prepared TiO₂-PVA sponge possesses excellent absorption capacity of oils or organic solvents ranging from 4.3 to 13.6 times its own weight. More importantly, the as-prepared TiO₂-PVA sponge can separate carbon tetrachloride from the oil-water mixture with a separation efficiency of 97.8% with the aid of gravity and maintains a separation efficiency of 96.5% even after 15 cyclic oil/water separation processes. Therefore, the rationally designed superhydrophobic/superoleophilic TiO₂-PVA sponge shows great potential in practical applications of dealing with oily wastewater and oil spills.

Enhanced Surface Icephobicity on an Elastic Substrate

Ice accumulation on exposed surfaces is unavoidable as time elapses and the temperature decreases sufficiently. To mitigate icing problems, various types of icephobic substrates have been rationally designed, including superhydrophobic substrates (SHSs), aqueous lubricating layers, organic lubricating layers, organogels, polyelectrolyte brush layers, electrolyte-based hydrogels, elastic substrates, and multicrack initiator-promoted surfaces. Among these surfaces, elastic substrates show excellent enhanced surface icephobicity during dynamic processes (i.e., water-impacting and de-icing tests). Herein, we summarize recent progress in elastic icephobic substrates and discuss the reasons that surface icephobicity can be enhanced on elastic substrates in terms of enhanced water repellency and further lowering the ice adhesion strength. For enhanced water repellency, we focus on reducing the contact time of water impacting such that water droplets can be easily shed from an elastic substrate before ice occurs. Reducing the contact time of water impacting various substrates (i.e., micro/nanostructured rigid SHSs, macrotextured rigid SHSs, and elastic SHSs) is discussed, followed by exploring their mechanisms. We argue that the ice adhesion strength can be further lowered on an elastic substrate by rationally tuning the elastic modulus and surface textures (i.e., surface textured and hollow subsurface textured) and combining elastic substrate with other passive anti-icing strategies (or functioning passive icephobic substrates with an electrothermal or photothermal stimulus). In short, the introduction of an elastic substrate into a passive or active icephobicity surface opens an avenue toward designing a versatile icephobic surface, providing great potential for outdoor anti-icing applications.

Design of Icephobic Surfaces by Lowering Ice Adhesion Strength: A Mini Review

Ice accretion can lead to severe consequences in daily life and sometimes catastrophic events. To mitigate the hazard of icing, passive icephobic surfaces have drawn widespread attentions because of their abilities in repelling incoming water droplets, suppressing ice nucleation and/or lowering ice adhesion strength. As time elapses and temperature lowers sufficiently, ice accretion becomes inevitable, and a realistic roadmap to surface icephobicity for various outdoor anti-icing applications is to live with ice but with the lowest ice adhesion strength. In this review, surfaces with icephobicity are critically categorized into smooth surfaces, textured surfaces, slippery surfaces and sub-surface textured surfaces, and discussed in terms of theoretical limit, current status and perspectives. Particular attention is paid to multiple passive anti-icing strategies combined approaches as proposed on the basis of icephobic surfaces. Correlating the current strategies with one another will promote understanding of the key parameters in lowering ice adhesion strength. Finally, we provide remarks on the rational design of state-of-the-art icephobic surfaces with low ice adhesion strength.

Transformation of Biowaste for Medical Applications: Incorporation of Biologically Derived Silver Nanoparticles as Antimicrobial Coating

Nanobiotechnology has undoubtedly influenced major breakthroughs in medical sciences. Application of nanosized materials has made it possible for researchers to investigate a broad spectrum of treatments for diseases with minimally invasive procedures. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been a subject of investigation for numerous applications in agriculture, water treatment, biosensors, textiles, and the food industry as well as in the medical field, mainly due to their antimicrobial properties and nanoparticle nature. In general, AgNPs are known for their superior physical, chemical, and biological properties. The properties of AgNPs differ based on their methods of synthesis and to date, the biological method has been preferred because it is rapid, nontoxic, and can produce well-defined size and morphology under optimized conditions. Nevertheless, the common issue concerning biological or biobased production is its sustainability. Researchers have employed various strategies in addressing this shortcoming, such as recently testing agricultural biowastes such as fruit peels for the synthesis of AgNPs. The use of biowastes is definitely cost-effective and eco-friendly; moreover, it has been reported that the reduction process is simple and rapid with reasonably high yield. This review aims to address the developments in using fruit- and vegetable-based biowastes for biologically producing AgNPs to be applied as antimicrobial coatings in biomedical applications.

Patterning Cu nanostructures tailored for CO2 reduction to electrooxidizable fuels and oxygen reduction in alkaline media

Due to the limited availability of noble metal catalysts, such as platinum, palladium, or gold, their substitution by more abundant elements is highly advisable. Considerably challenging is the controlled and reproducible synthesis of stable non-noble metallic nanostructures with accessible active sites. Here, we report a method of preparation of bare (ligand-free) Cu nanostructures from polycrystalline metal in a controlled manner. This procedure relies on heterogeneous localized electrorefining of polycrystalline Cu on indium tin oxide (ITO) and glassy carbon as model supports using scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). The morphology of nanostructures and thus their catalytic properties are tunable by adjusting the electrorefining parameters, i.e., the electrodeposition voltage, the translation rate of the metal source and the composition of the supporting electrolyte. The activity of the obtained materials towards the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), is studied by feedback mode SECM. Spiky Cu nanostructures obtained at a high concentration of chloride ions exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic activity. Nanostructures deposited under high cathodic overpotentials possess a high surface-to-volume ratio with a large number of catalytic sites active towards the reversible CO2RR and ORR. The CO2RR yields easily electrooxidizable compounds - formic acid and carbon monoxide. The HER seems to occur efficiently at the crystallographic facets of Cu nanostructures electrodeposited under mild polarization.

Design and preparation of sandwich-like polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sponges with super-low ice adhesion

The mitigation of ice on exposed surfaces is of great importance to many aspects of life. Ice accretion, however, is unavoidable as time elapses and temperature lowers sufficiently. One practical solution is to reduce the ice adhesion strength on a surface to as low as possible, by either decreasing the substrate elastic modulus, lowering surface energy or increasing the length of cracks at the ice-solid interface. Herein, we present a facile preparation of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based sandwich-like sponges with super-low ice adhesion. The weight ratio of the PDMS prepolymer to the curing agent is tuned to a lower surface energy and elastic modulus. The introduction of PDMS sponge structures combined the advantages of both a reduced apparent elastic modulus and most importantly, the macroscopic crack initiators at the ice-solid interface, resulting in dramatic reduction of the ice adhesion strength. Our design of sandwich-like sponges achieved a low ice adhesion strength as low as 0.9 kPa for pure PDMS materials without any additives. The super-low ice adhesion strength remains constant after 25 icing and deicing cycles. We thus provide a new and low-cost approach to realize durable super-low ice adhesion surfaces.

A review on wetting and water condensation - Perspectives for CO2 condensation

Liquefaction of vapor is a necessary, but energy intensive step in several important process industries. This review identifies possible materials and surface structures for promoting dropwise condensation, known to increase efficiency of condensation heat transfer. Research on superhydrophobic and superomniphobic surfaces promoting dropwise condensation constitutes the basis of the review. In extension of this, knowledge is extrapolated to condensation of CO₂. Global emissions of CO₂ need to be minimized in order to reduce global warming, and liquefaction of CO₂ is a necessary step in some carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS) technologies. The review is divided into three main parts: 1) An overview of recent research on superhydrophobicity and promotion of dropwise condensation of water, 2) An overview of recent research on superomniphobicity and dropwise condensation of low surface tension substances, and 3) Suggested materials and surface structures for dropwise CO₂ condensation based on the two first parts.

Controlled Wetting Properties through Heterogeneous Surfaces Containing Two-level Nanofeatures

Addressing the direct control of surface wettability has been a significant challenge for a variety of applications from self-cleaning surfaces to phase-change applications. Surface wettability has been traditionally modulated by installing surface nanostructures or changing their chemistry. Among numerous nanofabrication efforts, the chemical oxidation method is considered a promising approach because it allows cost-effective, quick, and direct control of the morphologies and chemical compositions of the grown nanofeatures. Despite the wide applicability of the surface oxidation method, the precise control of wetting behaviors through the growth of nanostructures has yet to be addressed. Here, we investigate the wetting characteristics of heterogeneous surfaces that contain two-level features (i.e., nanograsses and nanoflowers) with different petal shapes and structural chemistry. The difference in growth rates between nanograsses and nanoflowers creates a time-evolving morphology that can be classified by grass-dominated or flower-dominated regimes, which induces a wide range of water contact angles from 120 to 20°. The following study systematically quantifies the structural details and chemistry of nanostructures associated with their wetting characteristics. This investigation of heterogeneous surfaces will pave the way for selective growth of copper nanostructures and thus a direct control of surface wetting properties for use in future copper-based thermal applications.

Room Temperature Characteristics of Polymer-Based Low Ice Adhesion Surfaces

Ice adhesion is mainly dictated by surface properties, and water wettability is frequently correlated with ice adhesion strength. However, these established correlations are limited to high ice adhesion and become invalid when the ice adhesion strength is low. Here we carried out an experimental study to explore the relationships between low ice adhesion strength and room temperature surface properties. A variety of room temperature properties of 22 polymer-based hydrophilic and hydrophobic samples consisting of both low and high ice adhesion surfaces were analysed. The properties investigated include water adhesion force, water wettability, roughness, elastic modulus and hardness. Our results show that low ice adhesion strength does not correlate well with water contact angle and its variants, surface roughness and hardness. Low elastic modulus does not guarantee low ice adhesion, however, surfaces with low ice adhesion always show low elastic modulus. Low ice adhesion (below 60 kPa) of tested surfaces may be determinative of small water adhesion force (from 180 to 270 μN). Therefore, measurement of water adhesion force may provide an effective strategy for screening anti-icing or icephobic surfaces, and surfaces within specific values of water adhesion force will possibly lead to a low ice adhesion.