Nanomanufacturing of surfaces for smart, energy efficient buildings and transport vehicles

我们试图引入一种全新的精确纳米制造表面，用于被动、节能地操纵水的冷凝、冻结和光学性质。提议的表面将提高工业过程的能源效率，交通工具，如汽车，飞机和船舶，以及建筑环境（通过引入智能功能涂层）。具有精确纳米级、锥形特征的表面具有独特的特征，可以为广泛的智能表面应用量身定制。例如，这种表面可以实现：i)智能建筑中热控制所需的光（吸收/反射/散射）的可调和可控操纵；Ii)对水、油的附着力极低，并具有优异的抗高速液滴撞击能力（例如雨滴撞击或飞机在云层中移动）；Iii)控制水的凝结和冻结成核；iv)这些纳米结构的保形智能涂层的表面性能可通过外部刺激（例如温度或光激活）进行调节。拟议的项目将整合这些概念，以实现智能纳米工程表面的阶段性变化，这些表面可以抵抗高达50米/秒的水滴撞击速度，延迟冻结至-30摄氏度，防止窗户上的冷凝积聚，并将整个可见光谱的反射率抑制在<1% -性能将根据应用进行定制（并非所有特性都是必需的）相同的涂层。

We seek to introduce an entirely new class of precise nanomanufactured surfaces for passive, energy efficient manipulation of water condensation, freezing and optical properties. The proposed surfaces will improve the energy efficiency of industrial processes, transport vehicles such as automobiles, planes and ships as well as of the built environment (through introducing smart functional coatings). Surfaces with precise nanoscale, conical features have unique features that can be tailored for a wide ranging smart-surface applications. For example, such surfaces can enable: i) tuneable and controlled manipulation of light (absorbing/reflecting/scattering) required for heat control in smart buildings; ii) ultra-low adhesion to water, oils, and offer excellent resistance to high speed droplet impact (e.g. in rain drop impacts or plane moving through clouds); iii) control of the nucleation of water condensation and freezing; and iv) surface property tunability by external stimuli (e.g. temperature or light activation) upon conformal smart coatings of these nanostructures. The proposed project will integrate these concepts to deliver a step change in smart, nanoengineered surfaces that can resist water drops impalement up to impact speeds of 50 m/s, delay of freezing down to -30C, prevent condensation accumulation on windows and suppressing reflectivity to <1% across the entire visible spectrum - properties will be tailored to the application (not all features are necessary for the same coating).