Icing and Adhesion Behaviors on Surfaces with Varied Lattice Constants

YH Wu and ZY Ma and ZY Wang and S Lu and LG Qin and TF Zheng and GN Dong, LANGMUIR, 40, 19853-19860 (2024).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c02788

Investigating droplet wetting and icing behavior is crucial for comprehending the principles of surface icing and the design of anti- icing surfaces. In this study, we present the evidence from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations that reveal a hitherto unreported behavior of droplet wetting and icing adhesion on surfaces with lattice constants from 2.7 to 4.5 & Aring;. Here, we observe that the contact angles (CA) of droplets on a face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice surface consistently correlate positively with the lattice constant. Further examination of droplet behavior on an idealized crystal surface reveals that hydrophilic surfaces (e.g., CA = 85 degrees) inhibit freezing more effectively than hydrophobic surfaces (e.g., CA = 97 degrees). This finding contradicts the conventional explanation that hydrophobic surfaces reduce heterogeneous nucleation, thereby delaying icing. This study introduces a mechanistic explanation for the promotion of water icing by hydrophobic surfaces and offers a novel design concept for the development of anti-ice surfaces in future applications.

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