Droplet evaporation characteristics on transparent heaters with different wettabilities

Abstract

To develop more effective defogging/deicing (or anti-fogging/anti-icing) devices based on transparent heaters, it is necessary to investigate droplet evaporation on the heater surfaces. However, the characteristics of this evaporation process have not yet been reported. Here, we present the evaporation characteristics of water droplets and their evaporation rates on various transparent heaters (based on metal mesh, indium tin oxide thin film, and Ag nanowires) with various surface wettabilities. We determined that the evaporation characteristics of a droplet on the surface of a transparent heater depend on the surface wettability and that the evaporation rate can be controlled by modifying the surface wettability.