Keywords
Superhydrophobic, Lotus leaf effect, Development, Self-cleaning, Water-repellency, Re-entrant angle model.
Abstract
In the recent two decades, superhydrophobic surfaces' properties and their potential applications have attracted much attention. With the main advantages of self-cleaning, anti-icing, and drag-reduction, the superhydrophobic surfaces can be applied to many industry fields. But the traditional fabrication methods developed in the last twenty years for the superhydrophobic surfaces were focusing on mimicking nature. Specifically, most of the fabrication methods were based on the micro, and nano-scale structure of plants and animals, which came with the problems that such weeny structure on the surfaces would be damaged easily in the practical application without the self-healing capability like the creatures in nature and they are always with a high cost and strict requirements. Thus, people need to find another approach to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces. The re-entrant angle model, which is basically wider on top and narrower at the bottom, and the most important thing is that this is a general structure that can be more durable in practical application. In this major research paper, we will emphasize the development of the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces and the newer design based on the re-entrant angle model.
Primary Advisor
Vesselin Stoilov
Program Reader
Vesselina Roussinova
Degree Name
Master of Applied Science
Department
Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Document Type
Major Research Paper
Convocation Year
2021