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IMPACT OF FOULING
The dust is acidic or alkaline. When the moist dust attaches to (1)
the surface of PV glass cover glass, major components of glass
(silica and limestone and other substances) are to work with acid
or alkaline reaction. With the time increasing in acid or alkaline θ is contact angle and γSG, γSL, and γLG are surface tension of
environment, the glass surface will be gradually eroded. As acid solid-gas, solid–liquid and liquid–gas interfaces, respectively.
or alkaline dusts erode the PV glass cover, it reduces the On roughened surfaces, there are mainly two different
smoothness of glass cover surface and reflective index is equilibrium states: Wenzel state and Cassie Baxter state. When a
decreased. Therefore Reflected light intensity increases, and the liquid can fully wet the surface texture, the thermodynamic
refraction light energy is decreased. Reduction in the amount of equilibrium contact angle of a liquid droplet is described by the
photovoltaic power generation. Wenzel model (Figure 4(b)) which is given by:
(2)
A. SURFACE TENSION Or
(4)
The contact angle of liquid on the solid is determined by the
surface tension of liquid, surface energy of solid, and their Where
Note that the roughness factor r in Eq. (4) is calculated only for A superhydrophobic surface should have a low contact angle
the part of the solid surface that is in contact with liquid. Where, hysteresis to allow water to flow easily along the surface.
fsL is the fraction of the solid in contact with the liquid, θC is Therefore the requirements for a surface to be super
effective contact angle in Cassie state. hydrophobic are: 1) contact angle must be to greater than 150
(θ>150°). 2) Low contact angle hysteresis (θadv−θrec<5°). Low
CA hysteresis results in a very low water roll-off angle (the
angle to which a surface may be tilted for roll-off of water).
(9)
Figure 5 : Schematics depicting the motion of a liquid droplet on a
declined substrate covered with dirt. (a) When moving on a flat
substrate, where the adhesion between the dirt particles and the
substrate is high, the droplet just passes through. (b) A different
situation occurs on a substrate that is topographically decorated, so CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF HYDROBHOBIC SURFACE
that the dirt particles have difficulty adhering to it. As the liquid
droplet rolls off the substrate, it picks up the dirt particles and
There are three parameters necessary to define such topography,
hence cleans the substrate. namely the post radius b, the post height h and the pitch p of the
array. These structures can be made by etching, or by casting, of the interface inside the texture should obey the
allowing us to independently set these three parameters, relationship ⁄ the smaller the drop, the larger d. If this
typically in the range of 1–100 mm. quantity becomes of the order of the pillar height h, a solid–
liquid contact should nucleate on the bottom of the substrate and
propagate if the Cassie state is of lower energy than the Wenzel
d one[ equation ]. The critical radius for a Cassie drop is thus of
the order of ⁄ (much larger than p, if h<p). This quantity can
be made very small (robust Cassie state) either by making h
large or by reducing the different sizes p and h—a reduction in
Figure 6: water-air interfaces below a drop are curved (Cassie size affects the resistance of the Cassie state, which might
state), owing to the curvature of the drop (or to the pressure explain the existence of such very small scales in many natural
applied to the drop, if there is any). We characterize the lowering
materials.
of the interface below the top of the posts by a length d.
For regular arrays of long and dilute, cylindrical posts (b<<h SUPERHYDROPHOBICITY IN LOTUS LEAF
and b<<p), the roughness simply is Some biological materials possess excellent surface wettability
and exhibit a superhydrophobicity-induced self-cleaning
⁄ (10)
property. Among the variety of self-cleaning biomaterials, the
lotus leaf, is one of the most promising. Water droplets falling
Hence, a second natural parameter is the ratio between the
top and bottom surface areas, which is also the post density. It onto the leaves bead up and roll off. Rainwater washes dirt from
can be written as the lotus leaves so that they are self-cleaning.
(11)
( ) (12)
Polydimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) seems to be an ideal material for To prove this hypothesis, AZP4620 positive PR has been used
fabricating a optically transparent artificial lotus leaf film for for creating the underexposed under soft-baked PR mold. The
several reasons: first, it has a low surface energy of 19.8 thick AZP4620 PR mold is started with a standard spin coated
mJ/cm2; it shows high optical transparency throughout the deposition (3000 r/min expected thickness of 14μm) on a Si
ultraviolet and visible wavelengths; and it is well known for substrate; then it is soft baked in a convection oven at 88 °C for
precise replication of inverse images of a mold structure. In 5 min. Another layer of the PR is processed with the same
addition, PDMS has extremely low Young‘s modulus (< 4MPa) condition as the first layer and the double-layer thickness
which makes the PDMS an ideal material for flexible artificial became 43±2μm due to the viscous nature of the first PR layer.
lotus leaf film application to conform to arbitrary shaped The third layer deposition process (700 r/min) made the triple-
nonplanar surfaces. layer PR thickness to 103±3μm; then it is soft baked in a
convection oven at 88 °C for 30 min. Although baking time for
each layer is 30, 35, and 40 min, amount of evaporation of
A. DESIGN
solvents in each PR layer is not proportional to the baking time.
Underexposed and Under Soft-Baked PR Mold
Intentionally the first and second layers was baked for only 5
min to retain good amount of solvents in those layers. The final
layer is baked for 30 min to evaporate most of the solvents in
the third layer. While solvents in the third layer are evaporated,
(a) (b) (c) some of the solvents in the first and second layers would also be
evaporated, but the solvent evaporation rate for the first two
layers is much lower than that of the third layer. Next, the PR is
exposed under a UV light source, but with significantly
underexposure condition Fig. 9(b). Then, the PR sample is then
developed by AZ400K diluted (1:3) developer [ Fig9 (c)] to
Figure 8: Conceptual schematic diagrams of the PR mold after
developing. (a) Conventional lithography. (b) Underexposure form the underexposed underbaked PR mold. Next, PDMS
condition. (c) Underexposure and under soft-bake condition. (RTV615A) is mixed with a curing agent with a weight ratio of
10:1. This PDMS mixture is placed in a desiccator and is de-
In a conventional photolithography, it is highly desirable to have gassed under vacuum condition until no bubbles appeared. De-
near vertical sidewall in the patterned PR as shown in Fig. 8(a). gassed PDMS is carefully poured over the PR mold to cover the
Underexposure condition in photolithography may not provide whole surface area and minimize the introduction of bubbles;
enough irradiation to cause photochemical conversion of then it is triple spin coated on the PR mold to enhance the
dissolution inhibitor which may result in undesirable well- uniformity. After the first and second deposition of PDMS, it is
shaped PR pattern Fig. 8(b). Significant under soft-bake cured in a vacuum oven for PDMS to fill out the extremely
condition allows PR to retain good amount of solvents which concave area at 80 °C for 15 min. After the third deposition, the
greatly increase the dissolution rate of the PR during sample is placed in a convection oven at 65 °C for 30 min.
developing, i.e., the more residual solvent contained in the PR, Finally, AZ 400T PR stripper is used to safely delaminate the
replicated PDMS from the PR mold as shown in Fig. 9(d). The broccoli-shaped pillar structure‘s height is75±5μm due to
replicated PDMS sample is cleaned in an ultrasonic bath with significant underbaking and underexposure condition although
acetone for 1 min and rinsed with DI water. the PR thickness is 103±2μm. Since the PDMS baking was
carried out at lower temperatures than PR baking condition, we
expect that the impact of the PDMS baking on the PR topology
is minimal.
ANALYSIS
(d) (e)
Figure 10: (d) Optical image of the PR mold. (b)–(e) SEM images of
the replicated PDMS artificial lotus leaf.
REFERENCES