Thomas M. Schutzius

Surface Engineering for Phase Change Heat Transfer: A Review

Owing to advances in micro- and nanofabrication methods over the last two decades, the degree of sophistication with which solid surfaces can be engineered today has caused a resurgence of interest in the topic of engineering surfaces for phase change heat transfer. This review aims at bridging the gap between the material sciences and heat transfer communities. It makes the argument that optimum surfaces need to address the specifi cities of phase change heat transfer in the way that a key matches its lock. This calls for the design and fabrication of adaptive surfaces with multiscale textures and non-uniform wettability. Among numerous challenges to meet the rising global energy demand in a sustainable manner, improving phase change heat transfer has been at the forefront of engineering research for decades. The high heat transfer rates associated with phase change heat transfer are essential to energy and industry applications; but phase change is also inherently associated with poor thermodynamic effi ciency at low heat fl ux, and violent instabilities at high heat fl ux. Engineers have tried since the 1930s to fabricate solid surfaces that improve phase change heat transfer. The development of micro and nanotechnologies has made feasible the high-resolution control of surface texture and chemistry over length scales ranging from molecular levels to centimeters. This paper reviews the fabrication techniques available for metallic and silicon-based surfaces, considering sintered and polymeric coatings. The infl uence of such surfaces in multiphase processes of high practical interest, e.g., boiling, condensation, freezing, and the associated physical phenomena are reviewed. The case is made that while engineers are in principle able to manufacture surfaces with optimum nucleation or thermofl uid transport characteristics, more theoretical and experimental efforts are needed to guide the design and cost-effective fabrication of surfaces that not only satisfy the existing technological needs, but also catalyze new discoveries.

Highly Liquid-Repellent, Large-Area, Nanostructured Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/Poly(ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) Composite Coatings: Particle Filler Effects

Super-repellent nanostructured composite coatings applied over large areas by spray and subsequent thermal treatment are reported. Solution blending of poly(vinylidene fluoride) and poly(ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) is implemented to formulate filler particle dispersions used to apply these coatings. The wettability of these coatings is manipulated using hydrophobic poly(tetrafluoroethylene) and hydrophilic zinc oxide particle fillers or their combination. The resulting coatings feature contact angles up to 164 degrees for water and 154 degrees for a water and isopropyl alcohol mixture (9:1 weight ratio; surface tension approximately 40 mN/m). A self-cleaning ability is revealed by droplet roll-off angles below 10 degrees . The results show that the fillers affect the coating surface energy and surface roughness, in turn influencing the wettability of the coatings.

Wettability patterning for high-rate, pumpless fluid transport on open, non-planar microfluidic platforms

Surface tension driven transport of liquids on open substrates offers an enabling tool for open micro total analysis systems that are becoming increasingly popular for low-cost biomedical diagnostic devices. The present study uses a facile wettability patterning method to produce open microfluidic tracks that - due to their shape, surface texture and chemistry - are capable of transporting a wide range of liquid volumes (~1-500 μL) on-chip, overcoming viscous and other opposing forces (e.g., gravity) at the pertinent length scales. Small volumes are handled as individual droplets, while larger volumes require repeated droplet transport. The concept is developed and demonstrated with coatings based on TiO2 filler particles, which, when present in adequate (~80 wt.%) quantities within a hydrophobic fluoroacrylic polymer matrix, form composites that are intrinsically superhydrophobic. Such composite coatings become superhydrophilic upon exposure to UV light (390 nm). A commercial laser printer-based photo-masking approach is used on the coating for spatially selective wettability conversion from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic. Carefully designed wedge-patterned surface tension confined tracks on the open-air devices move liquid on them without power input, even when acting against gravity. Simple designs of wettability patterning are used on versatile substrates (e.g., metals, polymers, paper) to demonstrate complex droplet handling tasks, e.g., merging, splitting and metered dispensing, some of which occur in 3-D geometries. Fluid transport rates of up to 350 μL s(-1) are attained. Applicability of the design on metal substrates allows these devices to be used also for other microscale engineering applications, e.g., water management in fuel cells.

Inkjet patterned superhydrophobic paper for open-air surface microfluidic devices

We present a facile approach for the fabrication of low-cost surface biomicrofluidic devices on superhydrophobic paper created by drop-casting a fluoroacrylic copolymer onto microtextured paper. Wettability patterning is performed with a common household printer, which produces regions of varying wettability by simply controlling the intensity of ink deposited over prespecified domains. The procedure produces surfaces that are capable of selective droplet sliding and adhesion, when inclined. Using this methodology, we demonstrate the ability to tune the sliding angles of 10 μL water droplets in the range from 13° to 40° by printing lines of constant ink intensity and varied width from 0.1 mm to 2 mm. We also formulate a simple model to predict the onset of droplet sliding on printed lines of known width and wettability. Experiments demonstrate open-air surface microfluidic devices that are capable of pumpless transport, mixing and rapid droplet sampling (~0.6 μL at 50 Hz). Lastly, post treatment of printed areas with pH indicator solutions exemplifies the utility of these substrates in point-of-care diagnostics, which are needed at geographical locations where access to sophisticated testing equipment is limited or non-existent.

Superhydrophobic–superhydrophilic binary micropatterns by localized thermal treatment of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)–silica films

Surfaces patterned with alternating (binary) superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic regions can be found naturally, offering a bio-inspired template for efficient fluid collection and management technologies. We describe a simple wet-processing, thermal treatment method to produce such patterns, starting with inherently superhydrophobic polysilsesquioxane-silica composite coatings prepared by spray casting nanoparticle dispersions. Such coatings become superhydrophilic after localized thermal treatment by means of laser irradiation or open-air flame exposure. When laser processed, the films are patternable down to ∼100 μm scales. The dispersions consist of hydrophobic fumed silica (HFS) and methylsilsesquioxane resin, which are dispersed in isopropanol and deposited onto various substrates (glass, quartz, aluminum, copper, and stainless steel). The coatings are characterized by advancing, receding, and sessile contact angle measurements before and after thermal treatment to delineate the effects of HFS filler concentration and thermal treatment on coating wettability. SEM, XPS and TGA measurements reveal the effects of thermal treatment on surface chemistry and texture. The thermally induced wettability shift from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic is interpreted with the Cassie-Baxter wetting theory. Several micropatterned wettability surfaces demonstrate potential in pool boiling heat transfer enhancement, capillarity-driven liquid transport in open surface-tension-confined channels (e.g., lab-on-a-chip), and select surface coating applications relying on wettability gradients. Advantages of the present approach include the inherent stability and inertness of the organosilane-based coatings, which can be applied on many types of surfaces (glass, metals, etc.) with ease. The present method is also scalable to large areas, thus being attractive for industrial coating applications.

Sustaining dry surfaces under water

Rough surfaces immersed under water remain practically dry if the liquid-solid contact is on roughness peaks, while the roughness valleys are filled with gas. Mechanisms that prevent water from invading the valleys are well studied. However, to remain practically dry under water, additional mechanisms need consideration. This is because trapped gas (e.g. air) in the roughness valleys can dissolve into the water pool, leading to invasion. Additionally, water vapor can also occupy the roughness valleys of immersed surfaces. If water vapor condenses, that too leads to invasion. These effects have not been investigated, and are critically important to maintain surfaces dry under water. In this work, we identify the critical roughness scale, below which it is possible to sustain the vapor phase of water and/or trapped gases in roughness valleys – thus keeping the immersed surface dry. Theoretical predictions are consistent with molecular dynamics simulations and experiments.

Surface tension confined (STC) tracks for capillary-driven transport of low surface tension liquids

Surface tension confined (STC) open tracks for pumpless transport of low-surface tension liquids (e.g., acetone, ethanol, hexadecane) on microfluidic chips are fabricated using a large-area, wet-processing technique. Wettable, paraffin-wax, submillimeter-wide tracks are applied by a fountain-pen procedure on superoleophobic, fluoroacrylic-carbon nanofiber (CNF) composite coatings. The fabricated anisotropic wetting patterns confine the low-surface-tension liquids onto the flow tracks, driving them with meniscus velocities up to 3.1 cm s(-1). Scaling arguments and Washburns equation provide estimates of the liquid velocities measured in the STC tracks. These tracks are also shown to act as rails for directional sliding control of mm-sized water droplets. The present facile top-down patterned wettability approach can be extended to deposit micrometer-wide tracks, which bear promise for pumpless handling of low-surface tension liquids (e.g., aqueous solutions containing alcohols or surfactants) in lab-on-a-chip type applications or in low power, high-throughput bio-microfluidics for health care applications.

Quasi-optical terahertz polarizers enabled by inkjet printing of carbon nanocomposites

We report an approach for cost-effective manufacturing of THz quasi-optical polarizers by inkjet printing of polymer-carbon nanowhisker (CNW) dispersions. The electromagnetic interference properties of coatings with fixed CNW/polymer composition and varying thickness are quantified by a frequency domain THz spectroscopy system in the range 570–630u2009GHz. A shielding effectiveness of ∼40u2009dB is attained for 70u2009μm-thick coatings. A prototype THz polarizer printed on Mylar film displayed transmission and absorbance that varied with polarization orientation. The degree of polarization for film thickness of ∼1u2009μm was 0.35. This performance can be improved by refining grid dimensions, increasing coating thickness and adopting multi-layer polarizer structures.