Difference in growth and coalescing patterns of droplets on bi-philic surfaces with varying spatial distribution

Abstract

This paper reports the condensation and subsequent motion of water droplets on bi-philic surfaces, surfaces that are patterned with regions of different wettability. Bi-philic surfaces can enhance the water collection efficiency: droplets condensing on hydrophobic regions wick into hydrophilic drain channels when droplets grow to a certain size, renewing the condensation on the dry hydrophobic region. The onset of drain phenomenon can be triggered by multiple events with distinct nature ranging from gravity, direct contact between a droplet and a drain channel, to a mutual coalescence between droplets. This paper focuses on the effect of the length scale of hydrophobic regions on the dynamics of mutual coalescence between droplets and subsequent drainage. The main hypothesis was that, when the drop size is sufficient, the kinetic energy associated with a coalescence of droplets may cause dynamic advancing of a newly formed drop, leading to further coalescence with nearby droplets and ultimately to a chain reaction. We fabricate bi-philic surfaces with hydrophilic and hydrophobic stripes, and the result confirms that coalescing droplets, when the length scale of droplets increases beyond 0.2mm, indeed display dynamic expansion and chain reaction. Multiple droplets can thus migrate to hydrophilic drain simultaneously even when the initial motion of the droplets was not triggered by the direct contact between the droplet and the hydrophilic drain. Efficiency of drain due to mutual coalescence of droplets varies depending on the length scale of bi-philic patterns, and the drain phenomenon reaches its peak when the width of hydrophobic stripes is between 800μm and 1mm. The Ohnesorge number of droplets draining on noted surfaces is between 0.0042 and 0.0037 respectively. The observed length scale of bi-philic patterns matches that on the Stenocara beetle’s fog harvesting back surface. This match between length scales suggests that the surface of the insect is optimized for the drain of harvested water.