Condensation on Superhydrophobic Copper Oxide Nanostructures

Condensation is an important process in both emerging and traditional power generation and water desalination technologies. Superhydrophobic nanostructures promise enhanced condensation heat transfer by reducing the characteristic size of departing droplets via coalescence-induced shedding. In this work, we investigated a scalable synthesis technique to produce functionalized oxide nanostructures on copper surfaces capable of sustaining superhydrophobic condensation and characterized the growth and departure behavior of the condensed droplets. Nanostructured copper oxide (CuO) films were formed via chemical oxidation in an alkaline solution resulting in dense arrays of sharp CuO nanostructures with characteristic heights and widths of approximate to 1 mu m and approximate to 300 nm, respectively. To make the CuO surfaces superhydrophobic, they were functionalized by direct deposition of a fluorinated silane molecular film or by sputtering a thin gold film before depositing a fluorinated thiol molecular film. Condensation on these surfaces was characterized using optical microscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy to quantify the distribution of nucleation sites and elucidate the growth behavior of individual droplets with characteristic radii of approximate to 1-10 mu m at supersaturations