Water-repellent, rough surfaces have a remarkable and beneficial wetting property: when a water droplet comes in contact with a small fraction of the solid, both liquid-solid adhesion and hydrodynamic drag are reduced. As a prominent example from nature, the lotus leaf-comprised of a wax-like material with micro- and nano-scaled roughness-has recently inspired numerous syntheses of superhydrophobic substrates. Due to the diverse applications of superhydrophobicity, much research has been devoted to the fabrication and investigations of hydrophobic micro-structures using established micro-fabrication techniques. However, wetting transitions remain relatively little explored. During evaporation, a water droplet undergoes a wetting transition from a (low-frictional) partial to (adhesive) complete contact with the solid, destroying the superhydrophobicity and the self-cleaning properties of the slippery surface. Here, we experimentally examine the wetting transition of a drying droplet on hydrophobic nano-structures, a previously unexplored regime. In addition, using a theoretical analysis we found a universal criterion of this wetting transition that is characterized by a critical contact angle. Different from previous results showing different critical droplet sizes, our results show a universal, geometrically-dependent, critical contact angle, which agrees well with various data for both hydrophobic micro- and nano-structures.

Engineered suspensions of nanosized particles (nanofluids) may be characterized by enhanced thermal properties. Due to the increasing need for ultrahigh performance cooling systems, nanofluids have been recently investigated as next-generation coolants for car radiators. However, the multiscale nature of nanofluids implies nontrivial relations between their design characteristics and the resulting thermo-physical properties, which are far from being fully understood. In this work, the role of fundamental heat and mass transfer mechanisms governing thermo-physical properties of nanofluids is reviewed, both from experimental and theoretical point of view. Particular focus is devoted to highlight the advantages of using nanofluids as coolants for automotive heat exchangers, and a number of design guidelines is reported for balancing thermal conductivity and viscosity enhancement in nanofluids. We hope this review may help further the translation of nanofluid technology from small-scale research laboratories to industrial application in the automotive sector.

Nanoparticle suspensions in liquids have received great attention, as they may offer an approach to enhance thermophysical properties of base fluids. A good variety of applications in engineering and biomedicine has been investigated with the aim of exploiting the above potential. However, the multiscale nature of nanosuspensions raises several issues in defining a comprehensive modelling framework, incorporating relevant molecular details and much larger scale phenomena, such as particle aggregation and their dynamics. The objectives of the present topical review is to report and discuss the main heat and mass transport phenomena ruling macroscopic behaviour of nanosuspensions, arising from molecular details. Relevant experimental results are included and properly put in the context of recent observations and theoretical studies, which solved long-standing debates about thermophysical properties enhancement. Major transport phenomena are discussed and in-depth analysis is carried out for highlighting the role of geometrical (nanoparticle shape, size, aggregation, concentration), chemical (pH, surfactants, functionalization) and physical parameters (temperature, density). We finally overview several computational techniques available at different scales with the aim of drawing the attention on the need for truly multiscale predictive models. This may help the development of next-generation nanoparticle suspensions and their rational use in thermal applications.