Journal
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
Volume 442, Issue -, Pages 461-466Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2018.02.170
Keywords
Superhydrophobic surface; Brazed aluminum heat exchanger; Fungus cleaning; Micro/nanostructures; Monomolecular layer
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Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) through Korea Government (MSIP) [NRF-2016R1A2A1A05005414]
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Extensive research has been carried out concerning the application of superhydrophobic coating in heat exchangers, but little is known about the application of this technique to brazed aluminum heat exchangers (BAHEs). In this work, we describe a new superhydrophobic coating method, which is suitable for BAHE use on an industrial scale. We first render the BAHE superhydrophobic by fabricating micro/nanostructures using solution dipping followed by fluorination. After the complete removal of the silicon residue, we verify using surface analysis that the BAHE surface is perfectly superhydrophobic. We also studied the fungus-cleaning properties of the superhydrophobic surface by growing fungus for 4 weeks in a moist environment on BAHE fins with and without superhydrophobic coating. We observed that, whereas the fungus grown on the untreated fins is extremely difficult to remove, the fungus on the fins with the superhydrophobic coating can be removed easily with only a modest amount of water. We also found that the coated BAHE fins exhibit excellent resistance to moisture. The superhydrophobic coating method that we propose is therefore expected to have a major impact in the heating, ventilating and air conditioning industry market. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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