Glen McHale

Voltage-induced spreading and superspreading of liquids

The ability to quickly spread a liquid across a surface and form a film is fundamental for a diverse range of technological processes, including printing, painting and spraying. Here we show that liquid dielectrophoresis or electrowetting can produce wetting on normally non-wetting surfaces, without needing modification of the surface topography or chemistry. Additionally, superspreading can be achieved without needing surfactants in the liquid. Here we use a modified Hoffman-de Gennes law to predict three distinct spreading regimes: exponential approach to an equilibrium shape, spreading to complete wetting obeying a Tanners law-type relationship and superspreading towards a complete wetting film. We demonstrate quantitative experimental agreement with these predictions using dielectrophoresis-induced spreading of stripes of 1,2 propylene glycol. Our findings show how the rate of spreading of a partial wetting system can be controlled using uniform and non-uniform electric fields and how to induce more rapid superspreading using voltage control.

Simulations of laminar flow past a superhydrophobic sphere with drag reduction and separation delay

Superhydrophobic surfaces have potential for reducing hydrodynamic drag by combining a structured surface and hydrophobicity to retain a lubricating air layer (plastron) at the surface. In the present contribution, numerical simulations of laminar flow past a superhydrophobic sphere are conducted using a two-phase flow representation. The results show drag reductions in Stokes flow of up to 19% for an air-water system, in agreement with previous analytic work, and demonstrate an increased effect as the Reynolds number is increased to 100. Drag reductions of up to 50% are achieved due to reduction in viscous drag and suppression of separation by the plastron, resulting in a narrower wake. To explore a less idealised model of the plastron, baffles have also been introduced to simulate the support of a plastron by roughness elements. The baffles lead to the attached vortex regime no longer being suppressed, but separation is delayed and drag reductions are evident in comparison to a solid sphere. Increasing the area solid fraction results in a diminished drag reduction due to the plastron, however drag reductions of up to 15% can still be achieved with solid fractions of 10%.

A sublimation heat engine.

Heat engines are based on the physical realization of a thermodynamic cycle, most famously the liquid–vapour Rankine cycle used for steam engines. Here we present a sublimation heat engine, which can convert temperature differences into mechanical work via the Leidenfrost effect. Through controlled experiments, quantified by a hydrodynamic model, we show that levitating dry-ice blocks rotate on hot turbine-like surfaces at a rate controlled by the turbine geometry, temperature difference and solid material properties. The rotational motion of the dry-ice loads is converted into electric power by coupling to a magnetic coil system. We extend our concept to liquid loads, generalizing the realization of the new engine to both sublimation and the instantaneous vapourization of liquids. Our results support the feasibility of low-friction in situ energy harvesting from both liquids and ices. Our concept is potentially relevant in challenging situations such as deep drilling, outer space exploration or micro-mechanical manipulation.

Topological liquid diode

Janus gate: A unique topology blocks the flow of water in one direction but makes it run fast in the opposite direction. The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of interest in the field of droplet-based microfluidics for their multifarious applications. Despite rapid innovations in strategies to generate small-scale liquid transport on these devices, the speed of motion is usually slow, the transport distance is limited, and the flow direction is not well controlled because of unwanted pinning of contact lines by defects on the surface. We report a new method of microscopic liquid transport based on a unique topological structure. This method breaks the contact line pinning through efficient conversion of excess surface energy to kinetic energy at the advancing edge of the droplet while simultaneously arresting the reverse motion of the droplet via strong pinning. This results in a novel topological fluid diode that allows for a rapid, directional, and long-distance transport of virtually any kind of liquid without the need for an external energy input.

Flexible conformable hydrophobized surfaces for turbulent flow drag reduction

In recent years extensive work has been focused onto using superhydrophobic surfaces for drag reduction applications. Superhydrophobic surfaces retain a gas layer, called a plastron, when submerged underwater in the Cassie-Baxter state with water in contact with the tops of surface roughness features. In this state the plastron allows slip to occur across the surface which results in a drag reduction. In this work we report flexible and relatively large area superhydrophobic surfaces produced using two different methods: Large roughness features were created by electrodeposition on copper meshes; Small roughness features were created by embedding carbon nanoparticles (soot) into Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Both samples were made into cylinders with a diameter under 12u2009mm. To characterize the samples, scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and confocal microscope images were taken. The confocal microscope images were taken with each sample submerged in water to show the extent of the plastron. The hydrophobized electrodeposited copper mesh cylinders showed drag reductions of up to 32% when comparing the superhydrophobic state with a wetted out state. The soot covered cylinders achieved a 30% drag reduction when comparing the superhydrophobic state to a plain cylinder. These results were obtained for turbulent flows with Reynolds numbers 10,000 to 32,500.

Not spreading in reverse: The dewetting of a liquid film into a single drop

Dewetting films are not the time reversal of spreading droplets. Wetting and dewetting are both fundamental modes of motion of liquids on solid surfaces. They are critically important for processes in biology, chemistry, and engineering, such as drying, coating, and lubrication. However, recent progress in wetting, which has led to new fields such as superhydrophobicity and liquid marbles, has not been matched by dewetting. A significant problem has been the inability to study the model system of a uniform film dewetting from a nonwetting surface to a single macroscopic droplet—a barrier that does not exist for the reverse wetting process of a droplet spreading into a film. We report the dewetting of a dielectrophoresis-induced film into a single equilibrium droplet. The emergent picture of the full dewetting dynamics is of an initial regime, where a liquid rim recedes at constant speed and constant dynamic contact angle, followed by a relatively short exponential relaxation of a spherical cap shape. This sharply contrasts with the reverse wetting process, where a spreading droplet follows a smooth sequence of spherical cap shapes. Complementary numerical simulations and a hydrodynamic model reveal a local dewetting mechanism driven by the equilibrium contact angle, where contact line slip dominates the dewetting dynamics. Our conclusions can be used to understand a wide variety of processes involving liquid dewetting, such as drop rebound, condensation, and evaporation. In overcoming the barrier to studying single film-to-droplet dewetting, our results provide new approaches to fluid manipulation and uses of dewetting, such as inducing films of prescribed initial shapes and slip-controlled liquid retraction.

Investigation of the drag reducing effect of hydrophobized sand on cylinders

Superhydrophobic surfaces show strong potential for drag reducing applications. If such a surface supports a Cassie–Baxter state with low solid surface fraction and when immersed it retains a plastron air layer, large slip can occur across its surface as well as a consequent reduction in drag. In this work we report a facile method for creating hydrophobic cylinders and hydrophobic flat surfaces with varying surface roughness able to support a Cassie–Baxter state. Cylinders of 12 mm diameter were coated in hydrophobized sand with grain sizes in the ranges of 50–100, 212–300, 425–600 and 600–710 µm to produce the varying degrees of roughness. A laser Doppler anemometer was used to measure the velocity profile of the water across their wake in a large water circulating flow chamber. The hydrophobic cylinders in the Cassie–Baxter state show drag reductions of up to 28% compared to the same sample in the Wenzel state for flows with Reynolds numbers of 10 000 to 40 000. These drag reduction results, in combination with confocal microscopy images of the plastron air layer and feature height, show that the thickness of the plastron and the protrusion height of the features combine to give a drag reduction or drag increase depending on the ratio of the two.

Manipulated wettability of a superhydrophobic quartz crystal microbalance through electrowetting

The liquid phase response of quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs) with a thin coating (~9 µm) of epoxy resin with and without a carbon nanoparticles top layer is reported. The nanoparticles convert the epoxy surface to a superhydrophobic one with a high static contact angle (~151°–155°) and low contact angle hysteresis (~1°–3.7°) where droplets of water are in the suspended Cassie–Baxter state. The frequency decrease of the fully immersed QCM with the superhydrophobic surface is less than with only epoxy layer, thus indicating a decoupling of the QCM response. A wettability transition to a liquid penetrating into the surface roughness state (for droplets a high contact angle hysteresis Wenzel state) was triggered using a molarity-of-ethanol droplet test (MED) and electrowetting; the MED approach caused some surface damage. The electrowetting-induced transition caused a frequency decrease of 739 Hz at a critical voltage of ~100 V compared to the QCM in air. This critical voltage correlates to a contact angle decrease of 26° and a high contact angle hysteresis state in droplet experiments. These experiments provide a proof-of-concept that QCMs can be used to sense wetting state transitions and not only mass attachments or changes in viscosity–density products of liquids.

Developing interface localized liquid dielectrophoresis for optical applications

Electrowetting charges the solid-liquid interface to change the contact area of a droplet of a conducting liquid. It is a powerful technique used to create variable focus liquid lenses, electronic paper and other devices, but it depends upon ions within the liquid. Liquid dielectrophoresis (L-DEP) is a bulk force acting on the dipoles throughout a dielectric liquid and is not normally considered to be a localized effect acting at the interface between the liquid and a solid or other fluid. In this work, we show theoretically how non-uniform electric fields generated by interdigitated electrodes can effectively convert L-DEP into an interface localized form. We show that for droplets of sufficient thickness, the change in the cosine of the contact angle is proportional to the square of the applied voltage and so obeys a similar equation to that for electrowetting – this we call dielectrowetting. However, a major difference to electrowetting is that the strength of the effect is controlled by the electrode spacing and the liquid permittivity rather than the properties of an insulator in a sandwich structure. Experimentally, we show that that this dielectrowetting equation accurately describes the contact angle of a droplet of oil viewed across parallel interdigitated electrodes. Importantly, the induced spreading can be complete, such that contact angle saturation does not occur. We then show that for thin films, L-DEP can shape the liquid-air interface creating a spatially periodic wrinkle and that such a wrinkle can be used to create a voltage programmable phase diffraction grating.

Plastron Respiration Using Commercial Fabrics

A variety of insect and arachnid species are able to remain submerged in water indefinitely using plastron respiration. A plastron is a surface-retained film of air produced by surface morphology that acts as an oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange surface. Many highly water repellent and hydrophobic surfaces when placed in water exhibit a silvery sheen which is characteristic of a plastron. In this article, the hydrophobicity of a range of commercially available water repellent fabrics and polymer membranes is investigated, and how the surface of the materials mimics this mechanism of underwater respiration is demonstrated allowing direct extraction of oxygen from oxygenated water. The coverage of the surface with the plastron air layer was measured using confocal microscopy. A zinc/oxygen cell is used to consume oxygen within containers constructed from the different membranes, and the oxygen consumed by the cell is compared to the change in oxygen concentration as measured by an oxygen probe. By comparing the membranes to an air-tight reference sample, it was found that the membranes facilitated oxygen transfer from the water into the container, with the most successful membrane showing a 1.90:1 ratio between the cell oxygen consumption and the change in concentration within the container.