Ice formation can have catastrophic consequences for human activity on the ground and in the air. Here we investigate water freezing delays on untreated and coated surfaces ranging from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic and use these delays to evaluate icephobicity. Supercooled water microdroplets are inkjet-deposited and coalesce until spontaneous freezing of the accumulated mass occurs. Surfaces with nanometer-scale roughness and higher wettability display unexpectedly long freezing delays, at least 1 order of magnitude longer than typical superhydrophobic surfaces with larger hierarchical roughness and low wettability. Directly related to the main focus on heterogeneous nucleation and freezing delay of supercooled water droplets, the observed ensuing crystallization process consisted of two distinct phases: one very rapid recalescent partial solidification phase and a subsequent slower phase. Observations of the droplet collision process employed for the continuous liquid mass accumulation up to the point of ice formation reveal a previously unseen atmospheric-pressure, subfreezing-temperature regime for liquid-on-liquid bounce. On the basis of the entropy reduction of water near a solid surface, we formulate a modification to the classical heterogeneous nucleation theory, which predicts the observed freezing delay trends. Our results bring to question recent emphasis on super water-repellent surface formulations for ice formation retardation and suggest that anti-icing design must optimize the competing influences of both wettability and roughness.

Surface tension driven transport of liquids on open substrates offers an enabling tool for open micro total analysis systems that are becoming increasingly popular for low-cost biomedical diagnostic devices. The present study uses a facile wettability patterning method to produce open microfluidic tracks that - due to their shape, surface texture and chemistry - are capable of transporting a wide range of liquid volumes (~1-500 μL) on-chip, overcoming viscous and other opposing forces (e.g., gravity) at the pertinent length scales. Small volumes are handled as individual droplets, while larger volumes require repeated droplet transport. The concept is developed and demonstrated with coatings based on TiO2 filler particles, which, when present in adequate (~80 wt.%) quantities within a hydrophobic fluoroacrylic polymer matrix, form composites that are intrinsically superhydrophobic. Such composite coatings become superhydrophilic upon exposure to UV light (390 nm). A commercial laser printer-based photo-masking approach is used on the coating for spatially selective wettability conversion from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic. Carefully designed wedge-patterned surface tension confined tracks on the open-air devices move liquid on them without power input, even when acting against gravity. Simple designs of wettability patterning are used on versatile substrates (e.g., metals, polymers, paper) to demonstrate complex droplet handling tasks, e.g., merging, splitting and metered dispensing, some of which occur in 3-D geometries. Fluid transport rates of up to 350 μL s(-1) are attained. Applicability of the design on metal substrates allows these devices to be used also for other microscale engineering applications, e.g., water management in fuel cells.

In this paper an experimental and theoretical study of the deformation of a spherical liquid droplet colliding with a flat surface is presented. The theoretical model accounts for the presence of inertia, viscous, gravitation, surface tension, and wetting effects, including the phenomenon of contact-angle hysteresis. Experiments with impingement surfaces of different wettability were performed. The study showed that the maximum splat radius decreased as the value of the advancing contact angle increased. The effect of impact velocity on droplet spreading was more pronounced when the wetting was limited. The experimental results were compared to the numerical predictions in terms of droplet deformation, splat radius, and splat height. The theoretical model predicted well the deformation of the impacting droplet, not only in the spreading phase, but also during recoiling and oscillation. The wettability of the substrate upon which the droplet impinges was found to affect significantly all phases of the spreading process, including the formation and development of a ring structure around the splat.

represents a complex problem which spans several related disciplines and may require study outside of a diffusion flame or even a combustion environment. However, given the present level of interest and rate of progress, it is likely that a detailed understanding of soot formation in laminar flames will be available before the end of this century.Acknowledgment. We acknowledge with great appreciation the contributions of our co-workers at NBS in this work, particularly J.

Co-electrospinning is ideally suited for fabricating continuous fibers encasing materials within a polymer sleeve, but requires relatively complex coannular nozzles. A single-nozzle co-electrospinning technique is demonstrated using blends of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) solutions in dimethylformamide (DMF). The as-spun fibers have outer diameters in the range of 0.5-5 microm and possess a core-shell structure similar to that attained via coannular nozzles. The technique relies on the precipitation of PMMA solution droplets, which become trapped at the base of the Taylor cone issuing the PAN solution jet from its tip. A theoretical analysis shows that the outer shell flow is sufficiently strong to stretch the inner droplet into the Taylor cone, thus forming a core-shell jet. The method seems attractive for technological applications involving macroscopically long and radially inhomogeneous or hollow nano/micro fibers.