Dynamic Defrosting on Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Journal Article · Wed Jul 03 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Langmuir

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/la401282c· OSTI ID:1090491

Boreyko, Jonathan B. ^[1]; Srijanto, Bernadeta R. ^[2]; Nguyen, Trung Dac ^[3]; Vega, Carlos ^[4]; Fuentes-Cabrera, Miguel ^[5]; Collier, C. Patrick ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). National Center for Computational Sciences
4. Univ. Complutense Madrid (Spain). Dept. de Quimica Fisica
5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Computer Science and Mathematics Division

Water suspended on chilled superhydrophobic surfaces exhibits delayed freezing; however, the interdrop growth of frost through subcooled condensate forming on the surface seems unavoidable in humid environments. It is therefore of great practical importance to determine whether facile defrosting is possible on superhydrophobic surfaces. Here in this paper, we report that nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces promote the growth of frost in a suspended Cassie state, enabling its dynamic removal upon partial melting at low tilt angles (<15°). The dynamic removal of the melting frost occurred in two stages: spontaneous dewetting followed by gravitational mobilization. This dynamic defrosting phenomenon is driven by the low contact angle hysteresis of the defrosted meltwater relative to frost on microstructured superhydrophobic surfaces, which forms in the impaled Wenzel state. Dynamic defrosting on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces minimizes the time, heat, and gravitational energy required to remove frost from the surface, and is of interest for a variety of systems in cold and humid environments.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1090491
• Journal Information: Langmuir, Journal Name: Langmuir Journal Issue: 30 Vol. 29; ISSN 0743-7463
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE