Dr. Nenad Miljkovic from University of Illinois has developed an invention which improves the condensation of organic fluids. Vapor condensation is an ubiquitous process applied in a wide range of industrial processes including power generation, distillation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems and natural gas processing. Over the past several decades, water-repellent or hydrophobic surfaces have been developed for water condensation. However, this approach does not work with low-surface-tension fluids such as alcohols and hydrocarbons. Other approaches, such as omniphobic surfaces, fail for condensation applications. Starting from regular metal tubes (e.g. copper), Dr. Miljkovic and coworkers developed scalable nanostructured lubricant infused surfaces (LIS) that can sustain rigorous condensation conditions.
