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Wettability and durability of superhydrophobic-coated polymer surfaces for managed salt precipitation in desalination

  • Early Career Materials Researcher Research Letter
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Abstract

Scaling of heat exchanger surfaces is a routinely encountered challenge during desalination of high-salinity brines. This can be addressed by modifying the surface morphology and chemistry to manage salt precipitation by kinetically limiting nucleation as the water is removed. In this work, we modified inherently hydrophobic polymer surfaces with a silica nanoparticle-based spray coating to render them superhydrophobic. The wettability and durability of the coating was characterized at temperatures and salinities that are encountered in brine concentration. While contact angles of 150° were maintained in hot water and sparingly soluble salt solutions, highly soluble salts like NaCl were found to reduce the interfacial adhesion over time.

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Data availability

All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and electronic supplementary information.

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed in part at the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant ECCS-2025462). WP acknowledges financial support from the GEM Fellowship Program and the National GEM Consortium. AKM acknowledges the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering for startup funds to perform this work. The authors also thank Prof. Dennis Hess and Prof. Mark Losego for insightful discussions, and Dr. James Ponder for help with the profilometry measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Walter P. Parker Jr. & Akanksha K. Menon

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  1. Walter P. Parker Jr.
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  2. Akanksha K. Menon
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Correspondence to Akanksha K. Menon.

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Parker, W.P., Menon, A.K. Wettability and durability of superhydrophobic-coated polymer surfaces for managed salt precipitation in desalination. MRS Communications 12, 616–623 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43579-022-00218-0

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