Development of porous glass surfaces with recoverable hydrophobicity

Liliane C.C. Auwerter, Michael R. Templeton, Maarten van Reeuwijk, Oluwadamilola O. Taiwo, Christopher Cheeseman

Materials Letters: X · 2019

DOI: 10.1016/j.mlblux.2019.100002
ExperimentsDragMass Transfer

Abstract

Porous glass tiles have been reacted with a low-surface energy coating to produce hydrophobic surfaces. Washing the surface with surfactant reduces hydrophobicity and the wetting state changes from Cassie- Baxter to Wenzel. Passing air through the porous glass when it is immersed in water causes a solid-gas- liquid interface to form and this is associated with recovery of hydrophobicity. The processing and microstructural characteristics of the porous glass that show this effect are reported. Potential applica- tions include low-friction pipes, where maintaining the Cassie-Baxter state at the water-pipe interface would significantly reduce the energy required to transport water. /C2112019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Funding