Efficient removal of condensate droplets from the surface with microgroove composite structures

Abstract Due to the increasing scarcity of global water resources, water collection based on structural functional materials has become one of most potential ways to relieve the crisis. However, water collection functional surface with the high efficiency still encounters a bottleneck. In this paper, we constructed a rough surface with micro groove and nano grass composite structures on the copper substrate, and studied the influence of micro groove spacing on the falling radius of condensate droplets. The results show that the micro groove structure increases the nucleation of droplets, and the nano needle accelerates the removal of condensate droplets. The composite structure reduces the droplet shedding diameter, and the droplet nucleation first occurs at the edge of the micro groove. Therefore, reducing the tank spacing is conducive to the condensation and removal of droplets. In addition, the water collection experiment shows that the surface with micro/nano composite structures has higher collection efficiency than the smooth surface. These findings are useful for designing condensate collection systems with high performance.