Description
Efficient condensation of vapor and collection of fog from the atmosphereare important to life in arid environments. Nature has come up
with various strategies to optimize the processes by a combination of
both topographic and chemical functionalization of solid surfaces that
are imprinted passively into the structure of the surface. One crucial
aspect in this process is the removal of liquid from the solid surface
once it has condensed. In here, we present a novel active approach to
improve the efficiency of vapor condensation onto hydrophobic surfaces
that are functionalized by electrowetting. We fabricated electrowettingfunctionalized
surfaces with submerged interdigitated electrodes. Upon
exposure to supersaturated vapor droplets condense onto these surfaces
in an initially random pattern. As the droplets grow, electrowetting
mobilizes the growing drops and induces early coalescence, giving rise
to alignment of drops and to early shedding. Mobilization and early
shedding are controlled by the effective reduction of contact angle hysteresis
in AC electrowetting. Drops are found to grow algebraically,
initially with a self-similar growth law as in conventional drop condensation.
At a later stage, self-similarity is broken and the statistical
drop size distribution is altered. We discuss potential applications in
terms of heat transfer.
| Period | 14 Mar 2018 → 17 Mar 2018 |
|---|---|
| Event title | DPG Spring Meeting of the Condensed Matter Section (SKM) together with the EPS (EPS-CMD) 2018 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Berlin , GermanyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |