Laser-textured surfaces enabling reversible wettability switching and improved optical properties are gaining importance in cutting-edge applications, including self-cleaning interfaces, tunable ...optical lenses, microfluidics, and lab-on-chip systems. Fabrication of such surfaces by combining nanosecond-laser texturing and low-temperature annealing of titanium Ti-6Al-4V alloy was demonstrated by Lian et al. in ACS Appl. Mater. Inter. 2020, 12 (5), 6573–6580. However, it is difficult to agree with (i) their contradictory explanation of the wettability transition due to low-temperature annealing and (ii) their theoretical description of the optical behavior of the laser-textured titanium surface. This comment provides an alternative viewsupported by both experimental results and theoretical investigationon how the results by Lian et al. could be interpreted more correctly. The annealing experiments clarify that controlled contamination is crucial in obtaining consistent surface wettability alterations after low-temperature annealing. Annealing of laser-textured titanium at 100 °C in contaminated and contaminant-free furnaces leads to completely different wettability transitions. Analysis of the surface chemistry by XPS and ToF-SIMS reveals that (usually overlooked) contamination with hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) may arise from the silicone components of the furnace. In this case, a homogeneous thin PDMS film over the entire surface results in water repellency (contact angle of 161° and roll-off angle of 15°). In contrast, annealing under the same conditions but in a contaminant-free furnace preserves the initial superhydrophilicity, whereas the annealing at 350 °C turns the hydrophobicity “off”. The theoretical calculations of optical properties demonstrate that the laser-induced oxide layer formed during the laser texturing significantly influences the surface optical behavior. Consequently, the interference of light reflected by the air–oxide and the oxide–metal interfaces should not be neglected and enables several advanced approaches to exploit such optical properties.
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•Laser textured superhydrophilic surface changes in superhydrophobic in 1 month.•Development of water repellency correlates with improved corrosion resistance.•Higher resistance ...measured on textured than base surface with lower roughness.•In superhydrophilic state corrosion propagates along the last texturing passage.•Laser texturing completely inhibits the intergranular corrosion attack.
This work investigates the evolution from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic surface state on corrosion behaviour of SS316L produced by Nd:YAG nanosecond direct laser texturing (DLT). Results confirm perfect correlation among wettability and corrosion, hence superhydrophobic surface with a contact angle of 168±3.0° reflects in enhanced passivity, lower anodic dissolution and corrosion current reduction. Characterization of the corrosion attack by 3D microscopy reveals high sensitivity of superhydrophilic surfaces on corrosion propagation direction in regard to the laser beam passage (90°/0°). However, this trend completely diminishes with superhydrophobic development. Further, DLT also completely prohibits intergranular corrosion detected with the non-processed sample.
Functionalized interfaces enhancing phase-change processes have immense applicability in thermal management. Here, a methodology for fabrication of surfaces enabling extreme boiling heat transfer ...performance is demonstrated, combining direct nanosecond laser texturing and chemical vapor deposition of a hydrophobic fluorinated silane. Multiple strategies of laser texturing are explored on aluminum with subsequent nanoscale hydrophobization. Both superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces with laser-engineered microcavities exhibit significant enhancement of the pool boiling heat transfer. Surfaces with superhydrophobic microcavities allow for enhancements of a heat transfer coefficient of over 500%. Larger microcavities with a mean diameter of 4.2 μm, achieved using equidistant laser scanning separation, induce an early transition into the favorable nucleate boiling regime, while smaller microcavities with a mean diameter of 2.8 μm, achieved using variable separation, provide superior performance at high heat fluxes. The enhanced boiling performance confirms that the Wenzel wetting regime is possible during boiling on apparently superhydrophobic surfaces. A notable critical heat flux enhancement is demonstrated on superhydrophobic surfaces with an engineered microstructure showing definitively the importance and concomitant effect of both the surface wettability and topography for enhanced boiling. The fast, low-cost, and repeatable fabrication process has great potential for advanced thermal management applications.
Nucleate boiling enables effective cooling and heat transfer at low temperature differences between a heated surface and the surrounding fluid. It is utilized in many applications, ranging from large ...power plants to small microelectronics. To enhance the boiling process by minimization of the surface temperature and increase the maximum attainable heat flux, several approaches for surface modifications were recently developed. However, each of them has at least one important drawback, including challenging and expensive production, mechanical and/or thermal instability or problematic scale-up. Herein, a straightforward, robust and flexible method using a nanosecond fiber laser for production of surfaces with multi-scale micro-cavities (with diameters ranging from 0.2 to 10 μm) is developed. Examination of these surfaces in two very contrasting fluids - water, which is polar, has high surface tension and high latent heat of vaporization; and non-polar, dielectric tetradecafluorohexane (FC-72) with low surface tension and much lower latent heat - confirms that such surfaces enable enhanced heat transfer and controlled boiling in combination with diverse fluids. This demonstration suggests that the developed method has the potential to overcome the current limitations for further miniaturization of microelectronic devices and to increase performance and safety in high heat flux systems.
This study presents the application of hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane-silica coating used for the development of biphilic surfaces that are designed to enhance the heat transfer during boiling. ...Surface analyses showed that this coating exhibits a high hydrophobicity due to its hierarchical structure and the use of hydrophobic polymer. An appropriate thermal treatment leads to the oxidation of the methyl groups and a formation of silicon oxide and silicon carbide that result in a wettability transition from hydrophobic to superhydrophilic. On this basis, we manufactured hydrophobic/superhydrophilic patterns on stainless-steel foils using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The uniform, superhydrophilic surface exhibited a 350% larger critical heat flux (CHF) than bare stainless-steel foil. High-speed IR thermography revealed that the increased wettability reduced the bubble contact diameter, allowed a higher density of active nucleation sites, and delayed the dry-out. The biphilic surfaces with differently sized hydrophobic spots exhibited the highest heat transfer coefficients, with an up to 200% higher CHF compared to the bare stainless steel. Smaller hydrophobic spots reduced the bubble diameter and increased the nucleation frequency. However, surfaces with larger hydrophobic regions promoted boiling incipience and exhibited higher heat transfer coefficients at low heat fluxes. These results suggest that the optimal biphilic pattern could only be determined for a particular operating point. Our data provide a new insight into the complex phenomena of nucleate pool boiling on chemically and mechanically heterogeneous surfaces.
•Boiling heat transfer on polydimethylsiloxane-silica film is studied experimentally.•Biphilic (138°/<1°) micropatterned surfaces are produced with pulsed Nd:YAG laser.•Smaller hydrophobic spots reduce bubble diameter and increase nucleation frequency.•The highest HTC is achieved on biphilic surface with the smallest hydrophobic spots.•Uniform superhydrophilic surface exhibit 350% higher CHF compared to bare surface.
Stability of functionalized surfaces is an often-neglected topic in phase-change heat transfer research. Here, we examine the chemical and morphological changes of textured surfaces on the molecular ...and atomic level after the critical heat flux incipience during saturated pool-boiling of water. SEM imaging, EDS, AES and XPS analyses are used to examine the surface changes. Copper samples were laser textured via ablation using a nanosecond fiber laser under air or argon atmosphere. Multiscale microcavities, which serve as preferential nucleation sites, were produced on the samples, which exhibited significantly enhanced heat transfer performance in pool-boiling tests. Repeated formation of a vapor film and accompanying temperatures of up to 320 °C during the tests resulted in changes of the surface chemistry and nanomorphology. It was determined that Cu (II) oxide and hydroxide transform into Cu (I) oxide and Cu metal as a result of repeated low-temperature annealing of the surface when a vapor film is formed during the transition towards film boiling. This additionally causes a wettability transition of the functionalized surfaces from hydrophilic towards hydrophobic. Both effects importantly influence the solid-liquid-vapor interface during phase-change heat transfer. Overall, surfaces functionalized via laser texturing exhibited significantly enhanced stability and boiling heat transfer performance.
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•Copper surfaces are modified using nanosecond laser-texturing•Pool boiling heat transfer on textured surfaces is significantly enhanced•A shift in boiling curves after the first CHF incipience is observed and investigated•Surface chemical composition is analyzed and correlated with boiling behavior•Conversion of CuO and Cu(OH)2 into Cu2O and Cu as a result of CHF onset is detected
•Surfaces with periodically changed wettability were produced by a ns marking laser.•Heat transfer was investigated on uniformly and non-uniformly wettable surfaces.•Microporous surfaces with ...non-uniform wettability enhance boiling heat transfer.•The most bubble nucleations were observed in the vicinity of the microcavities.•Results agree with the predictions of the nucleation criteria.
Microstructured uniformly and non-uniformly wettable surfaces were created on 25-μm-thin stainless steel foils by laser texturing using a marking nanosecond Nd:YAG laser (λ=1064nm) and utilizing various laser fluences and scan line separations. High-speed photography and high-speed IR thermography were used to investigate nucleate boiling heat transfer on the microstructured surfaces. The most pronounced results were obtained on a surface with non-uniform microstructure and non-uniform wettability. The obtained results show up to a 110% higher heat transfer coefficients and 20–40 times higher nucleation site densities compared to the untextured surface. We show that the number of active nucleation sites is significantly increased in the vicinity of microcavities that appeared in areas with the smallest (10μm) scan line separation. Furthermore, this confirms the predictions of nucleation criteria and proves that straightforward, cost-effective nanosecond laser texturing allows the production of cavities with diameters of up to a few micrometers and surfaces with non-uniform wettability. Additionally, this opens up important possibilities for a more deterministic control over the complex boiling process.
Controlling the surface wettability represents an important challenge in the field of surface functionalization. Here, the wettability of a stainless-steel surface is modified by 30-ns pulses of a ...Nd:YAG marking laser (λ = 1064 nm) with peak fluences within the range 3.3⁻25.1 J cm
. The short- (40 days), intermediate- (100 days) and long-term (1 year) superhydrophilic-to-(super)hydrophobic transition of the laser-textured surfaces exposed to the atmospheric air is examined by evaluating its wettability in the context of the following parameters: (i) pulse fluence; (ii) scan line separation; (iii) focal position and (iv) wetting period due to contact angle measurements. The results show that using solely a short-term evaluation can lead to wrong conclusions and that the faster development of the hydrophobicity immediately after laser texturing usually leads to lower final contact angle and vice versa, the slower this transition is, the more superhydrophobic the surface is expected to become (possibly even with self-cleaning ability). Depending on laser fluence, the laser-textured surfaces can develop stable or unstable hydrophobicity. Stable hydrophobicity is achieved, if the threshold fluence of 12 J cm
is exceeded. We show that by nanosecond-laser texturing a lotus-leaf-like surface with a contact angle above 150° and roll-off angle below 5° can be achieved.
•We study nucleate boiling on substrates of small thermal capacity using IR camera.•Microlayer does not fully evaporate due to limited thermal capacity of the heater.•Microlayer evaporation and ...rewetting are less important compared to thick heaters.•Most energy is removed by convective effects created by bubble growth and departure.•We re-derived heat flux partitioning model to quantify each heat transfer mechanism.
In this work, we studied the wall heat flux partitioning during the pool boiling of water on thin metallic surfaces. We conducted boiling experiments on surfaces where we engineered nucleation sites by nanosecond-fiber-laser texturing. These nucleation sites form triangular lattice patterns with different pitches. We measured the time-dependent temperature and heat flux distributions on the boiling surface using an infrared camera. We developed post-processing algorithms to measure, based on these distributions, all the fundamental boiling parameters used in heat flux partitioning models (e.g., nucleation site density, bubble wait and growth time, and bubble footprint radius) and the actual partitioning of the heat flux, i.e., how much heat is transferred by evaporation of the microlayer, rewetting of the surface, and convective effects.
This work reveals that the mechanisms of heat transfer on substrates of small thermal capacity are very different compared to substrates of large thermal capacity. With water, the bubble microlayer typically does not dry out and the surface temperature at rewetting is practically the same as the rewetting fluid temperature. These effects limit the efficiency of microlayer evaporation and rewetting heat transfer. Instead, convective effects generated by the bubble growth process remove most of the energy from the heated surface. This behavior is captured by a heat flux partitioning model that we re-derived from first principles to describe the heat transfer mechanisms on substrate of small thermal capacity.
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