Engineering Commons^™

Accelerated Freezing Due To Droplet Pinning On A Nanopillared Surface, Rachel Bohm, Mohammad Rejaul Haque, Chuang Qu, Edward C. Kinzel, Amy Rachel Betz

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The freezing process is significantly influenced by environmental factors and surface morphologies. At atmospheric pressure, a surface below the dew and freezing point temperature for a given relative humidity nucleates water droplets heterogeneously on the surface and then freezes. This paper examines the effect of nanostructured surfaces on the nucleation, growth, and subsequent freezing processes. Microsphere Photolithography (MPL) is used to pattern arrays of silica nanopillars. This technique uses a self-assembled lattice of microspheres to focus UV radiation to an array of photonic jets in photoresist. Silica is deposited using e-beam evaporation and lift-off. The samples were placed on a …