A Fluoropolymer-Coated Nanometer-Thick Cu Mesh Film for a Robust and Hydrophobic Transparent Heater

To develop more effective optoelectronic devices with a transparent heater, it is necessary to investigate the droplet evaporation characteristics and wettability control on the heater surface. An optically transparent and hydrophobic amorphous fluoropolymer, Cytop, is spin-coated onto a nano-thick copper (Cu) micromesh-based transparent conductor to evaluate its performance for a high-durable transparent heater (a transmittance of 81.6% at 550 nm, a sheet resistance of 5 Ω sq–1). As the result, the thermal and chemical stabilities of the pure Cu micromesh-based transparent heater with the ∼80 nm thick Cytop layer improve without performance degradation. The evaporation time of water droplets on the surface of the hydrophobic transparent heater is noticeably delayed (about 60–130%) because the average evaporation flux of the droplet on the surface of the hydrophobic transparent heater is lower than those on the hydrophilic heater surfaces. In addition, unlike when the heater surface is hydrophilic, there is no coffee-ring effect when the heater surface is hydrophobic due to the recirculating Marangoni flow within the droplet. Further, the hydrophobic transparent heater surface exhibits excellent icephobic and antifrost properties. The results will be helpful for the further development of practical transparent heaters including self-cleaning smart windows, transparent actuators, transparent chemical and biological sensors, and transparent heating sources.