Droplet impact on superhydrophobic surfaces: A review of recent developments

A comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of droplets undergoing collisions with solid surfaces is required in a number of technological and industrial situations. Recently, a new kind of functional surface with particular characteristics has attracted increasing attention among the scholars and industrialists. Besides the thirst for knowledge, researchers have been driven by the possible applications of drop impinging superhydrophobic materials in several fields, such as self-cleaning, ice resisting, corrosion protection, etc. Hence, even the least improvement in understanding the underlying physics of droplet impacting superhydrophobic surfaces is of profound significance. Consequently, this paper presents a brief review of potential applications of superhydrophobic surfaces. The special feature of this study is to thoroughly focus on the most recent advances regarding dynamics and kinematics of drop impinging superhydrophobic substrates. On this account, the latest scientific findings in droplet impact and its deformation plus the effects of surface characteristics have been surveyed exhaustively. (C) 2016 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.