Wetting via water condensation of hydrophobic grain surfaces as viewed by synchrotron-radiation computed tomography
摘要
The wetting of hydrophobic material via water droplet condensations by means of electronic microscopy and synchrotron computed tomography is investigated in this paper in order to better understand the mechanisms controlling the interaction of hydrophobic granular media and water. In literature so far the behavior has been investigated only by 2D means. In this study, sand and glass beads with similar grain size distribution were made hydrophobic via PFA-C6 cold plasma polymerization. A miniature cooling device based on the Peltier effect for in situ synchrotron computed tomography experiments controlled by a Raspberry Pi was designed and used to induce droplet condensation on the material’s surface during CT scanning. The tomograms allow to count droplets and measure their contact angles. Results show that the condensation of those small droplets feature contact angles usually greater than