Drop impact dynamics on slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces: influence of oil thickness

Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) are porous nanostructures impregnated with a low surface tension lubricant. They have recently shown great promise in various applications that require non-wettable superhydrophobic surfaces. In this paper, we investigate experimentally the influence of the oil thickness on the wetting properties and drop impact dynamics of new SLIPS. By tuning the thickness of the oil layer deposited through spin-coating, we show that a sufficiently thick layer of oil is necessary to avoid dewetting spots on the porous nanostructure and thus increasing the homogeneity of the liquid distribution. Drop impact on these surfaces is investigated with a particular emphasis on the spreading and rebound dynamics when varying the oil thickness and the Weber number

Drop impact dynamics on slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces: influence of oil thickness.

Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) are porous nanostructures impregnated with a low surface tension lubricant. They have recently shown great promise in various applications that require non-wettable superhydrophobic surfaces. In this paper, we investigate experimentally the influence of the oil thickness on the wetting properties and drop impact dynamics of new SLIPS. By tuning the thickness of the oil layer deposited through spin-coating, we show that a sufficiently thick layer of oil is necessary to avoid dewetting spots on the porous nanostructure and thus increasing the homogeneity of the liquid distribution. Drop impact on these surfaces is investigated with a particular emphasis on the spreading and rebound dynamics when varying the oil thickness and the Weber number

Scalable simple liquid deposition techniques for the enhancement of light absorption in thin films: Distributed Bragg reflectors coupled to 1D nanoimprinted textures

Light trapping within a light absorbing medium is a key to highly efficient thin film solar cells. We propose a large-scale procedure based on materials with low absorption for the fabrication of combined Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) and grating light trapping structures. Using Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis (RCWA) numerical simulations we designed a combined DBR and 1D grating structure allowing to significantly improve the absorption in a aSi:H film as thin as 100 nm. The optimized light trapping structure was fabricated. The enhancement of light absorption in thin aSi:H film was experimentally proven and discussed quantitatively with respect to the theoretical expectations