Life Span of Slippery Lubricant Infused Surfaces.

Since their discovery a decade ago, slippery liquid infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) or lubricant infused surfaces (LISs) have been demonstrated time and again to have immense potential for a plethora of applications. Of these, one of the most promising is enhancing the energy efficiency of both thermoelectric and organic Rankine cycle power generation via enhanced vapor condensation. However, utilization of SLIPSs in the energy sector remains limited due to the poor understanding of their life span.

Lubricant-Infused Surfaces for Low-Surface-Tension Fluids: The Extent of Lubricant Miscibility.

Lubricant-infused surfaces (LISs) and slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) have shown remarkable success in repelling low-surface-tension fluids. The atomically smooth, defect-free slippery surface leads to reduced droplet pinning and omniphobicity. However, the presence of a lubricant introduces liquid-liquid interactions with the working fluid.

Stable Dropwise Condensation of Ethanol and Hexane on Rationally Designed Ultrascalable Nanostructured Lubricant-Infused Surfaces.

Vapor condensation is a widely used industrial process for transferring heat and separating fluids. Despite progress in developing low surface energy hydrophobic and micro/nanostructured superhydrophobic coatings to enhance water vapor condensation, demonstration of stable dropwise condensation of low-surface-tension fluids has not been achieved. Here, we develop rationally designed nanoengineered lubricant-infused surfaces (LISs) having ultralow contact angle hysteresis (<3°) for stable dropwise condensation of ethanol (γ ≈ 23 mN/m) and hexane (γ ≈ 19 mN/m).

Lubricant-Infused Surfaces for Low-Surface-Tension Fluids: Promise versus Reality.

The past few decades have seen substantial effort for the design and manufacturing of hydrophobic structured surfaces for enhanced steam condensation in water-based applications. Such surfaces promote dropwise condensation and easy droplet removal. However, less priority has been given to applications utilizing low-surface-tension fluids as the condensate.