Interfacial Materials and Phenomena
Icephobicity with superhydrophobic selective solar absorbing surfaces
Engineering icephobic surfaces has been a long-standing effort to address the challenges of ice prevention and removal in our daily life and industrial applications. It is highly desirable to exploit their mutual benefits to realize passive, durable, and sustainable icephobicity even at extremely low temperatures. We report on a superhydrophobic selective surface constructed with a hierarchical architecture to enable stable superhydrophobicity and high-efficiency solar-thermal conversion. We also discovered appealing and unintuitive ice nucleation mechanisms when droplets are exposed to extremely large temperature gradients.
Related publications:
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W. Ma, Y. Li, C. Chao, C. Tso, B. Huang*, W. Li*, S. Yao*, 2021, “Solar-assisted icephobicity down to -60 °C with superhydrophobic selective surfaces,” Cell Reports Physical Science, 2(3), p.100384. (*Corresponding author)
Anti-fogging/frosting with transparent photothermal coatings
Surface fogging reduces light transmission of optically clear materials and causes various problems in daily life. Transparent photothermal materials have recently emerged as an eco-friendly and sustainable solution to surface fogging. However, most reported photothermal materials only exploited the broadband spectrum of solar energy and the spectral feature is yet to be tuned to optimize the visibility and photothermal effect simultaneously. We develop a highly transparent, photothermally selective coating, based on solution-processed cesium-doped tungsten trioxide nanoparticles. The transparent selective photothermal coating provides a visible transmittance up to 82% and a high absorption of ultraviolet and near infrared light over 90%, and achieves a temperature rise by 38 ℃ under 1-sun illumination, resulting in remarkable anti-fogging and defogging abilities under extremely frigid or humid conditions.
Related publications:
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W. Li, C. Lin, W. Ma, Y. Li, B. Huang, S. Yao, 2021, “Transparent Selective Photothermal Coatings for Antifogging Applications,” Cell Reports Physical Science, 2(5), 100435.
Bioinspired Lubricating Surfaces for Fluid Drag Reduction
Energy loss caused by friction accounts for approximately 60% of ship propulsive power. For decades, superhydrophobic surfaces have elicited considerable attention due to their ability to reduce frictional drag without additional energy supply. However, the vulnerability of air pockets within superhydrophobic surfaces to high hydrodynamic pressure considerably restricts the practical applications as a drag-reducing modality. Therefore, inspired by the mucus layer on fish body, I will design a robust and sustainable lubricating organogel, which is fabricated by immersing soft polymer into lubricants.