Engineering Commons^™

Thermally Stable Super-Hydrophobic Surface Creation, Caleb Turner

Undergraduate Research & Mentoring Program

Thermally stable super-hydrophobic surface coatings are critical to applications in low gravity fluid dynamics, and in particular Leidenfrost effects. The challenges of manufacturing different super-hydrophobic coatings that are thermally stable, semi-transparent, and environmentally safe at desired operating temperatures is pursued in order to explore the applications of such coatings aboard spacecraft. A catalog of surface coating manufacturing procedures is tabulated with measures for static contact angle, thermal stability, and transparency. These quantities and methods serve as a foundation for both technology applications and follow on experimentation concerning low gravity fluid mechanics at the Portland State Dryden Drop Tower lab.