Water droplet evaporation on Cu-based hydrophobic surfaces with nano-and micro-structures

The characteristics of water droplet evaporation on three different hydrophobic surfaces, PCu (Plain Copper, θ = 115°), MSCu (Micro-Structured Copper, θ = 126°) and NSCuO (Nano-Structured Copper Oxide, θ = 159°) with coating of the same SAM (Self-Assembled Monolayer) material, were experimentally investigated. For industrial heat transfer applications, copper material was used as the substrate, and the simple and cost-effective fabrication technique to prepare the superhydrophobic surface, NSCuO, was introduced. Based on the observations, the behavior of droplet evaporation was divided into three stages: Stage I (constant contact area stage), Stage II (constant contact angle stage) and Stage III (mixed stage). When studying the PCu surface, the Stages I, II, and III were observed, consistent with previous reports. For the MSCu surface, Stages I and III appeared without Stage II, and the pinning period of contact line was the longest among the test samples due to the formation of Wenzel state droplet. In the case of the superhydrophobic NSCuO surface, only Stage III occurred, and the contact line moved freely during the entire evaporation time because of the formation of Cassie state droplet. The total evaporation time of the NSCuO was the longest out of all the samples tested. At the last stage of evaporation, the edge of the droplet shrank at a much faster rate in all surfaces. On the other hand, the shrinking velocity of the droplet height drastically increased only on the NSCuO, which was considered as the unique behavior of superhydrophobic surface. In this experiment, it was found that the surface structure determines the motion of the contact line on the surface, which, in turn, strongly influences the characteristics of the droplet evaporation.