The Life and Death of Micro Droplets

Condensation plays a vital role both in research and in industrial applications. While naturally occurring surfaces can be either hydrophilic (water-loving like paper) or hydrophobic (water-hating like wax), we at MNFTL, UIC, engineered surfaces that are a mix of hydrophilic patterns (black colored) on shiny Teflon coated hydrophobic copper. These surfaces are great for condensation (and thus help cool surfaces faster and better) and could play a crucial role in developing next generation electronic chip cooling devices or in developing advanced refrigeration devices. While the actual surface is just a few millimeters across and could seem uninteresting at first glance, looking at it with a camera with a macro-lens opens up a whole new world of small droplets forming, growing bigger, coalescing just to touch the hydrophilic paths and disappear into them forever, which starts afresh the process of new droplets formation. Fast removal of droplets by the hydrophilic paths allows faster condensation rates with better drainage on these surfaces.