Superhydrophobic Surfaces for condensation by using spray coating method

Water repellent surfaces may enhance the condensation by efficiently removing the condensed droplets. However, such surfaces may lose their original performance as they are exposed to external mechanical stresses. In this work, we fabricated spray-coated mechanically robust superhydrophobic surfaces using treated titanium dioxide (Type 1) or silica particles (Type 2). Then we compared the mechanical robustness of such surfaces with the silane-coated superhydrophobic surface and PEEK coated surface using a controlled-sand blasting method. The results show that the spray-coated samples can maintain the same level of the contact angle hysteresis than silane-coated superhydorphobic surface after sand blasting at 2 bar. The spray-coating method was applied to the tube type condenser and the condensation behaviors were observed within the environmental chamber with controlled pressure, humidity and non-condensable gas. Previously-reported droplet jumping was observed in the early stage of the condensation event, but soon the droplet jumping stopped and only dropwise condensation was observed since the condensed droplets were pinned on the cracks at spray-coated surfaces. The static contact angle decreases from $158.0^{\circ}$ to $133.2^{\circ}$, and hysteresis increases from $3.0^{\circ}$ to $23.5^{\circ}$ when active condensation occurs on such surfaces. This work suggests the benefits and limitation of spray-coated superhydrophobic condensers and help develop advanced condensers for practical use.