Recent developments, challenges, and pathways to stable dropwise condensation: A perspective

摘要

Dropwise condensation (DWC) on non-wetting surfaces has remarkable potential to enhance heat transfer performance compared to film-wise condensation on wetting substrates. In this article, we discuss important recent developments and challenges in the field of DWC, including durability of DWC-promoting coatings, DWC of low surface tension fluids, physical mechanisms governing DWC, unconventional methods to achieve DWC, and promising metrology techniques for DWC. We end the article by providing a road map detailing where we believe the community should direct both fundamental and applied efforts in order to solve the identified century-old challenges that limit DWC implementation.