Wettability patterning of titanium surfaces through pulsed laser melting for enhanced condensation heat transfer

Wettability engineering of different surfaces has been in the spotlight for the last few decades for enhanced condensation heat transfer in various applications. In this study, we experimentally investigated the water vapor condensation on a wettability-tailored Titanium-based (Ti-6Al-4V) grade 5 alloy. We utilize the microsecond laser to texture the surface by melting at various scanning speeds to realize a wide range of scalable surface structures. We further render these surfaces hydrophobic through chemical vapor deposition of silane at atmospheric pressure. Further water vapor condensation experiments are performed on these surfaces. The results show that the increased surface roughness due to laser-based melting altered the surface wettability of the Ti-surface and made it hydrophilic, exhibiting water drop contact angles ranging between 18° and 56° for the scan speeds between 25mm/s and 50 mm/s, respectively. The vapor deposition of silane on laser-melted Ti-surfaces lowered its surface energy and made them hydrophobic, showing contact angles of water drop up to ∼106° specifically at lower scan speeds (∼ 25 mm/s). Finally, the vapor condensation experiments showed an enhanced amount of condensed water collection with dropwise mode compared to the bare Ti surface due to a change in the wetting nature altered by laser melting.