Droplet condensation on polymer surfaces: A review

Abstract

Dropwise condensation on substrates is an important topic of interest because it plays a crucial role in many scientific applications such as heat transfer, water harvesting from the humid atmosphere, and polymer templating. We focused on droplet condensation on polymer surfaces and briefly summarized the drop condensation studies reported in the last 2 decades and their potential applications. The main topics discussed in this review are water harvesting from dew using radiative cooling; using surfaces synthesized by bio-inspiration; experimental, theoretical, and simulation studies on the growth of breath figures; drop condensation on superhydrophobic surfaces and on self-assembled monolayers; and hexagonal pattern formation on polymers using the breath figures method. This review does not cover dropwise condensation studies in heat transfer phenomena since polymers are rarely used for this purpose due to their low heat transfer coefficients.