Rice engineering team repels even near-boiling water with low-cost, scalable coating скачать в хорошем качестве

Rice engineering team repels even near-boiling water with low-cost, scalable coating

Superhydrophobic surfaces — those famously “never-wet” materials that make water bead up and roll away — have a stubborn weakness: hot water. Once temperatures climb above roughly 40 degrees° Celsius, many superhydrophobic coatings abruptly lose their magic. Instead of skittering off, hot droplets start sticking, soaking into the surface texture and leaving behind wet patches and residue. A new study from mechanical engineers at Rice University describes a surprisingly straightforward fix: Iinstead of just engineering the surface’s chemistry and texture, they focused on engineering its heat flow. By placing a thin, thermally insulating layer beneath an off-the-shelf superhydrophobic spray coating, the researchers created what they call a multilayered insulated superhydrophobic (MISH) coating that keeps repelling water even when droplets approach their boiling point — up to 90° C, which is far beyond the point where conventional superhydrophobic coatings typically fail. The research was recently published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.