Spatial control in the heterogeneous nucleation of water

By K. Varanasi, M. Hsu, N. Bhate, Wensha Yang, T. Deng. 2009

486 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Heterogeneous nucleation of water plays an important role in a wide range of natural and industrial processes. Though heterogeneous nucleation of water is ubiquitous and an everyday experience, spatial control of this important phenomenon is extremely difficult. Here we show for the first time that spatial control in the heterogeneous nucleation of water can be achieved by manipulating the local nucleation energy barrier and nucleation rate via the modification of the local intrinsic wettability of a surface. Such ability to control water nucleation could address the condensation-related limitations of superhydrophobic surfaces and has implications for efficiency enhancements in energy and desalination systems.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Surfaces, Coatings and Films

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a5b6f1352c1727724e957e1c5669c69d0d19b41f

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In Atmospheric Science

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

In Surfaces, Coatings and Films

Citations in the corpus

Dropwise Condensation on Micro- and Nanostructured Surfaces (2014, unknown): “Varanasi et al.[153] investigated the use of hydrophobic-hydrophilic patterning in combination”
A novel superhydrophobic hybrid nanocomposite material prepared by surface-initiated AGET ATRP and its anti-icing properties (2014, methodology): “[51] Varanasi K K, Hsu M, Bhate N, et al.”
Boiling heat transfer on superhydrophilic, superhydrophobic, and superbiphilic surfaces (2012, background): “Few multiphase heat transfer measurements however have been made on SHPi or SHPo surfaces, with the exception of experiments involving single nucleation [14] or condensation [15].”