Coalescence-induced jumping of nanodroplets on mixed-wettability superhydrophobic surfaces

Abstract

Coalescence-induced droplet jumping on superhydrophobic surfaces has been observed at microscale and even nanoscale. The enhancement in jumping velocity of coalescing droplets is crucial for condensation heat transfer enhancement, anti-icing, self-cleaning, and so forth. However, the research on how to acquire a higher jumping velocity is really very limited. In this paper, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study the coalescence-induced jumping of two equally sized nanodroplets on chemically heterogeneous surfaces composed of alternating stripes with different hydrophobicity. We show that the jumping velocity is closely related to the stripe width and wettability contrast, and it can even exceed that on an ideal superhydrophobic surface with 180° contact angle when the striped surfaces are properly designed. We also demonstrate that there is always an optimal stripe width yielding the maximum jumping velocity, whereas its value is independent of the wettability contrast. We reveal that the dominant factor to determine the jumping velocity is the apparent contact angle of equilibrated droplets over heterogeneous surfaces for small stripe widths; it changes to the time of liquid bridges impacting surfaces for moderate stripe widths and to the contact area between equilibrated droplets and relatively hydrophobic stripes for large stripe widths. We believe the present simulations can provide useful guidance to design self-jumping superhydrophobic surfaces.