Thermophoretically driven water droplets on graphene and boron nitride surfaces

R Rajegowda and SK Kannam and R Hartkamp and SP Sathian, NANOTECHNOLOGY, 29, 215401 (2018).

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/aab3a3

We investigate thermally driven water droplet transport on graphene and hexagonal boron nitride. (h-BN) surfaces using molecular dynamics simulations. The two surfaces considered here have different wettabilities with a significant difference in the mode of droplet transport. The water droplet travels along a straighter path on the h-BN sheet than on graphene. The h-BN surface produced a higher driving force on the droplet than the graphene surface. The water droplet is found to move faster on h-BN surface compared to graphene surface. The instantaneous contact angle was monitored as a measure of droplet deformation during thermal transport. The characteristics of the droplet motion on both surfaces is determined through the moment scaling spectrum. The water droplet on h-BN surface showed the attributes of the super-diffusive process, whereas it was sub-diffusive on the graphene surface.

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