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Download filePreferential Vapor Nucleation on Hierarchical Tapered Nanowire Bunches
dataset
posted on 31.12.2020, 22:14 authored by Bingang Du, Yaqi Cheng, Siyan Yang, Wei Xu, Zhong Lan, Rongfu Wen, Xuehu MaControlling vapor nucleation on micro-/nanostructured
surfaces
is critical to achieving exciting droplet dynamics and condensation
enhancement. However, the underlying mechanism of nucleation phenomena
remains unclear because of its nature of nanoscale and transience,
especially for the complex-structured surfaces. Manipulating vapor
nucleation via the rational surface design of micro-/nanostructures
is extremely challenging. Here, we fabricate hierarchical surfaces
comprising tapered nanowire bunches and crisscross microgrooves. Nanosteps
are formed around the top of the nanowire bunches, where the nanowires
all around agglomerate densely because of surface tension. The theoretical
analysis and molecular dynamics simulation show that nanostep morphologies
that are around the top of the nanowire bunches can enable a lower
energy barrier and a higher nucleation capability than those of the
sparsely packed nanowires at the center and bottom of the nanowire
bunches. Vapor condensation experiments demonstrate that the nucleation
preferentially occurs around the top of the nanowire bunches. The
results provide guidelines to design micro-/nanostructures for promoting
vapor nucleation and droplet removal in condensation.