The famous physicist Wolfgang Pauli used to say that “God made the bulk; the surface was invented by the devil”. The reasoning behind this metaphorical phrase is that surfaces hold incredible power since they are communicating with whatever is outside the bulk material, acting as the border for almost all the kinds of interactions of the material with its environment. Controlling interfacial phenomena can give us great power to manipulate various processes occurring at a solid-liquid interface for instance. This has been evident in the research areas of catalysis,1 wettability,2 friction,3 fouling,4 phase change,5 and energy exchange6 to name a few. Interfacial phenomena originating from soft materials are even more unique, since soft matter offers more possibilities to control the material composition and surface morphology. Bulk properties on the other hand can also be tuned through the development of fully organic, or organic/inorganic, composite material systems that achieve combined effects, originating from the properties of the individual constituents.
Inspired by the above, this talk will give an overview of my research activities over the last few years, on innovative surface and bulk material design of soft and composite matter, towards the enhancement of various processes associated with interfacial phenomena. The interfacial phenomena that I will discuss include surface wetting, phase change processes (icing and condensation), biofouling and printing. In particular, I will present our work on the development of self-cleaning materials,7 icephobic coatings,8 surface treatments for heat exchangers,9 materials for anti-biofouling10 and printing of adhesives on various substrates.11 From the material design perspective we will revise the tuning of surface topographical characteristics (micro and nano-scale surface engineering with various techniques), as well as control over the bulk properties (mechanical properties, biodegradability and composite chemical composition).12 Finally, we will conclude the discussion with highlights from recent works from the Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, and future prospects related to the field.
References
- Schauermann, S.; Nilius, N.; Shaikhutdinov, S.; Freund, H. J. Nanoparticles for Heterogeneous Catalysis: New Mechanistic Insights. Acc. Chem. Res. 2013, 46 (8), 1673–1681.
- Milionis, A.; Fragouli, D.; Martiradonna, L.; Anyfantis, G. C.; Cozzoli, P. D.; Bayer, I. S.; Athanassiou, A. Spatially Controlled Surface Energy Traps on Superhydrophobic Surfaces. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2014, 6 (2), 1036–1043.
- Daniello, R. J.; Waterhouse, N. E.; Rothstein, J. P. Drag Reduction in Turbulent Flows over Superhydrophobic Surfaces. Phys. Fluids 2009, 21 (8).
- Krishnan, K. G.; Malm, P.; Loth, E. Superhydrophobic Resistance to Dynamic Freshwater Biofouling Inception. Biofouling 2015, 31 (9), 789–797.
- Walker, C.; Lerch, S.; Reininger, M.; Eghlidi, H.; Milionis, A.; Schutzius, T. M.; Poulikakos, D. Desublimation Frosting on Nanoengineered Surfaces. ACS Nano 2018.
- Attinger, D.; Frankiewicz, C.; Betz, A. R.; Schutzius, T. M.; Ganguly, R.; Das, A.; Kim, C.-J.; Megaridis, C. M. Surface Engineering for Phase Change Heat Transfer: A Review. MRS Energy Sustain. 2014, 1, E4.
- Milionis, A.; Giannuzzi, R.; Bayer, I. S.; Papadopoulou, E. L.; Ruffilli, R.; Manca, M.; Athanassiou, A. Self-Cleaning Organic/Inorganic Photo-Sensors. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2013, 5 (15), 7139–7145.
- Yeong, Y. H.; Milionis, A.; Loth, E.; Sokhey, J. Self-Lubricating Icephobic Elastomer Coating (SLIC) for Ultralow Ice Adhesion with Enhanced Durability. Cold Reg. Sci. Technol. 2018, 148.
- Milionis, A.; Noyes, C.; Loth, E.; Bayer, I. S. Superhydrophobic 3D Printed Surfaces by Dip-Coating. In Nanotechnology 2014: MEMS, Fluidics, Bio Systems, Medical, Computational and Photonics - 2014 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2014; Nano Science and Technology Institute, 2014; Vol. 2, pp 157–160.
- Krishnan, K. G.; Milionis, A.; Loth, E.; Farrell, T. E.; Crouch, J. D.; Berry, D. H. Influence of Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic Surfaces on Reducing Aerodynamic Insect Residues. Appl. Surf. Sci. 2017, 392.
- Makrygianni, M.; Millionis, A.; Kryou, C.; Trantakis, I.; Poulikakos, D.; Zergioti, I. On-Demand Laser Printing of Picoliter-Sized, Highly Viscous, Adhesive Fluids: Beyond Inkjet Limitations. Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2018, 5 (18), 1–9.
- Milionis, A.; Sharma, C. S.; Hopf, R.; Uggowitzer, M.; Bayer, I. S.; Poulikakos, D. Engineering Fully Organic and Biodegradable Superhydrophobic Materials. Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2018, 1801202, 1801202.