Research and Applications of Superhydrophobic Surfaces and Coatings
A Special Issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412) belonging to the section "Liquid–Fluid Coatings, Surfaces and Interfaces".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2027 | Viewed by 1020
Editors
Interests: modeling of dropwise condensation on hydrophobic, superhydrophobic, and hybrid surfaces; in-flight icing simulations on superhydrophobic surfaces; instability of thin liquid films; numerical simulation of forced convection in microchannels; first- and second-low-based heat exchanger design
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Hydrophobic, superhydrophobic, and hybrid hydrophobic–hydrophilic surfaces have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their relevance in several engineering applications.
These surfaces are typically realized through a wide range of surface engineering approaches, including micro/nanostructuring, chemical functionalization, and coating deposition techniques, reflecting the significant research effort devoted to their fabrication and optimization.
It is well-established that dropwise condensation of steam and humid air enhances heat transfer performance compared to standard filmwise condensation regimes. Superhydrophobic coatings and hybrid hydrophobic–hydrophilic surfaces promote dropwise condensation by enabling efficient surface renewal and condensate removal. In particular, the Cassie–Baxter wetting state, typically observed on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces, facilitates droplet mobility and jumping, further enhancing surface renewal during the condensation process. However, the underlying physics governing these complex phenomena is still not fully understood, and the long-term durability of such surfaces remains an open challenge.
Passive anti-icing strategies rely on superhydrophobic and ice-phobic surfaces. In in-flight icing conditions, such water-repellent surfaces, often coupled with active systems, reduce collection efficiency through droplet bouncing upon impact and support a dropwise regime, thereby enhancing liquid removal and delaying or preventing ice accretion on subcooled airfoil surfaces. Ice-phobic surfaces further reduce ice adhesion strength, improving ice removal efficiency. However, commonly used ice accretion models generally do not account for substrate properties such as hydrophobicity or ice-phobicity.
Other engineering-relevant applications can be briefly highlighted, without any claim of exhaustiveness: self-cleaning surfaces exploit low surface energy and surface roughness to promote droplet-mediated contaminant removal (lotus effect), and hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces strongly influence boiling heat transfer by modifying wettability, nucleation, and bubble dynamics, both in flow boiling and pool boiling configurations.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Nicola Suzzi
Dr. Gabriele Toffoletti
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- superhydrophobic coating
- dropwise condensation
- anti-icing applications
- self-cleaning surfaces
- surface engineering
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