Liquid mobility on superwettable surfaces for applications in energy and the environment
Scientists have recently investigated liquid mobility on superwettable surfaces for energy and environmental applications.
Liquid mobility on super-wettable materials is of interest for enhanced heat transfer, self-cleaning, anti-fouling, anti-icing, water-harvesting, and oil–water separation. Scientists reviewed different mechanisms related to liquid mobility on super-wettable materials, encompassing some classical wetting theories and liquid transport behaviors observed on biological surfaces with special textures.
Vertical motion, horizontal transportation and interfacial penetration
Then, the different categories of liquid behaviors on super-wettability materials are summarised, focusing on recent progress on vertical motion (droplet self-propelling and bouncing), horizontal transportation (transportation on one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) materials), and interfacial penetration (oil–water penetration and water penetration). Along these lines, they also review the latest applications in energy and the environment, followed by presenting the outlook and key challenges.
The study is published in: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2019, Issue 1.
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