Search

The inherent hydrophilicity of a variety of heat exchanging industrial appliances, including air-conditioners, refrigerators or heat pumps, is a highly-beneficial platform for the accumulation of frost at negative surface temperatures, dramatically aggravating the efficient device operation in terms of heat transfer and energy consumption. Here, we introduce experimental data from pioneering research on the frosting/defrosting behavior of chemically modified super-nonwettable soot—one of the very few materials providing scalability, satisfactory mechanical durability, icephobic and anti-bioadhesion properties simultaneously. The analysis of the anti-frosting/defrosting performance of three groups of soot coatings, obtained by treating the pristine samples with alcohol, fluorocarbon or silver hydrogen fluoride, reveals that the frost incipiency on the soot can be efficiently controlled by tailoring its chemistry and porosity. In turn, the super-nonwettable material is capable of delaying the onset of vapor condensation and frosting to supercooling degrees of 8.4 °C and 15.8 °C, accordingly, and maintaining relatively large frost-free halos up to −20 °C. Moreover, the onset of soot defrosting is accelerated by a factor of 35 compared to a bare Cu substrate, demonstrating extremely low ice adhesion forces and strong potential of the soot coatings for passive icing protection of many cryogenic facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water is a vital compound for all known forms of life, but it can also cause detrimental consequences to our daily routine if by natural means becomes pathogenic bacterial carrier or transforms into ice. Imaginative by necessity, the surrounding environment has stimulated the mankind to emulate natural-design solutions and invent the so-called super-nonwettable coatings. Undisputedly, these coatings have revolutionized the modern industry by providing "a vehicle" for potential eco-friendly water purification, passive icing protection, suppression of the solid surface-associated spreading of bacterial infections and enhanced cryopreservation of living matter. Regrettably, the wide domestic use of liquid impermeable coatings (surfaces) is yet limited, since the current market trends impose the possession of fabrication scalability and multifunctionality, which is not covered by most of the available non-wettable products. This viewpoint article intends to outline the most significant scientific achievements within the past five years related to the release of anti-wetting coatings with multiple applications. Design and performance efficiencies in light of the physical chemistry of the surface are demonstrated, emphasizing on the likelihood of integrating icephobicity and anti-biofouling capacity within a single interfacial nanostructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting the increasing commercial need of rational strategies for passive icing and anti-microbial protection, the development of simple, time-efficient and scalable laboratory micropatterning techniques is highly desirable. Whilst the laser irradiation is an acknowledged technology for rapidly tuning the properties of any carbon allotropes, including soot aerosols, very barely is known about the impact of the laser beam on the physicochemical profile of the soot if it appears as a functional coating. In this pioneering research, the prolonged laser treatment of a super-nonwettable soot coating actuates morpho-chemical transformations in the material, depending on the laser power and irradiation time, without interfering its anti-wetting capability and optical transmittance. Our observations could be used as a foundation for facilitating the launch of soot coatings with customized anti-icing and anti-microbial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The functionality of human spermatozoa is a key factor for the success rate of natural human reproduction, but unfortunately the infertility progressively increases due to multifarious environmental factors. Such disquieting statistics requires the employment of sophisticated computer-assisted methods for semen quality analysis, whose precision, however, is unreliable in cases of patients with low sperm concentrations. In this study, we report a novel quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) based biosensor for in-situ quality assessment of male gametes, comprising a superhydrophobic soot coating as an interface sensing material. The soot deposition on the surface of a 5 MHz QCM eliminates the noise that normally arises upon immersion of the uncoated sensor in the test liquid environment, allowing the detection of human spermatozoa down to 1000–100,000 units/mL (1–100 ppb). Furthermore, the soot coated QCM delimitates in a highly repeatable way the immotile and motile sperm cells by inducing fundamentally distinct responses in respect to sensor sensitivity and signal trends. The obtained results reveal the strong potential of the superhydrophobic QCM for future inclusion in diverse laboratory analyses closely related to the in vitro fertilization procedures, with a final aim of gaining practical approaches for diagnoses and selection of male gametes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]