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Transparent sunlight-activated antifogging metamaterials
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Date
2023-02
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Counteracting surface fogging to maintain surface transparency is important for a variety of applications including eyewear, windows and displays. Energy-neutral, passive approaches predominantly rely on engineering the surface wettability, but suffer from non-uniformity, contaminant deposition and lack of robustness, all of which substantially degrade durability and performance. Here, guided by nucleation thermodynamics, we design a transparent, sunlight-activated, photothermal coating to inhibit fogging. The metamaterial coating contains a nanoscopically thin percolating gold layer and is most absorptive in the near-infrared range, where half of the sunlight energy resides, thus maintaining visible transparency. The photoinduced heating effect enables sustained and superior fog prevention (4-fold improvement) and removal (3-fold improvement) compared with uncoated samples, and overall impressive performance, indoors and outdoors, even under cloudy conditions. The extreme thinness (~10 nm) of the coating—which can be produced by standard, readily scalable fabrication processes—enables integration beneath other coatings, rendering it durable even on highly compliant substrates.
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Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
18 (2)
Pages / Article No.
137 - 144
Publisher
Event
Edition / version
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
Organisational unit
03462 - Poulikakos, Dimos (emeritus) / Poulikakos, Dimos (emeritus)
Notes
Funding
179062 - On the fundamental role of substrate compliance and enhanced light absorption on droplet condensation and evaporation (SNF)
Related publications and datasets
item-metadata-list-element.reverse.undefined: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000605640
item-metadata-list-element.reverse.undefined: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/589115.4
item-metadata-list-element.reverse.undefined: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000574061