interfacial Science and Surface Engineering Lab
iSSELab
KRÜSS Surface Science Hub
Condensation & Fog Harvesting
ABSTRACT:
Surfaces with fluid repellency are of great interest for a plethora of applications and introduction of the concept of wettability contrast has further expanded their application domain. Myriad of fabrication techniques are known to prepare superhydrophobic surfaces, however, for generating wettability contrast on a substrate comparatively very few methods are available. A preponderance of these methods involves intricate procedures and sophisticated instrumentation, making them not suitable for up-scaling. In this report, we have used a facile, eco-friendly and solvent-less egg-based approach for fabricating copper surfaces with wettability contrast. This multifaceted method is successfully utilized to design substrates suitable for different applications such as drop manipulation, directional fluid transport, and fog harvesting.
Fluid Guided Transport
ABSTRACT:
Surfaces with fluid repellency are of great interest for a plethora of applications and introduction of the concept of wettability contrast has further expanded their application domain. Myriad of fabrication techniques are known to prepare superhydrophobic surfaces, however, for generating wettability contrast on a substrate comparatively very few methods are available. A preponderance of these methods involves intricate procedures and sophisticated instrumentation, making them not suitable for up-scaling. In this report, we have used a facile, eco-friendly and solvent-less egg-based approach for fabricating copper surfaces with wettability contrast. This multifaceted method is successfully utilized to design substrates suitable for different applications such as drop manipulation, directional fluid transport, and fog harvesting.
Superhydrophobic / Hydrophobic Coatings
ABSTRACT:
Free-standing films of graphene oxide (GO) are regarded as potential materials for numerous applications in different fields. However, fabricating macroscopic free-standing GO films with high throughput is a bottleneck in large-scale application of these films. Here we introduce a method suitable for the mass-scale fabrication of free-standing GO films by exploring paraffin film (Parafilm M®) as a sacrificial substrate. The method involves deposition of GO on a paraffin film and peeling of the paraffin film after swelling it with toluene to obtain free-standing film of GO. Furthermore, the GO films were reduced into highly conductive RGO films using a green reducing agent ascorbic acid. A strategy of treating GO films with CuSO4solution prior to reduction is also designed to avoid the possible disintegration of GO films in ascorbic acid solution. A detailed comparative study on the properties of RGO films prepared via thermal and chemical treatment and through the combination of both is also reported. An investigation of the variation in the electrical conductivity of the RGO films based on the reduction method is also carried out. The hydrophobic nature of the thermally reduced RGO films is explored for the oil/water separation.