Dropwise condensation rate of water breath figures on polymer surfaces having similar surface free energies

This study investigates the effect of surface roughness, wettability, water contact angle hysteresis (CAH) and wetting hysteresis (WH) of polymeric substrates to the water drop condensation rate. We used five polyolefin coatings whose surface free energies were in a close range of 30–37 mJ/m2 but having different surface roughness and CAH. The formation of water breath figures was monitored at a temperature just below the dew point. The initial number of the condensed droplets per unit area (N0) and droplet surface coverage were determined during the early stage of drop condensation where the droplet coalescence was negligible. It was found that the mean drop diameter of condensed droplets on these polymer surfaces grow according to a power law with exponent 1/3 of time, similar to the previous reports given in the literature. It was determined that surface roughness and corresponding CAH and WH properties of polymers have important effects on the number of nucleation sites and growth rate of the condensed water droplets. N0 values and the surface coverage increased with the increase in surface roughness, CAH and WH of the polymer surfaces. The total condensed water drop volume also increased with the increase in surface roughness in accordance with the increase of the number of nucleated droplets.