When Lotus Leaves Prevent Metal from Melting — Biomimetic Surfaces for High Temperature Applications

摘要: Functional properties of biological surfaces have gained increasing interest in the last two decades, especially with regard to wetting and self-cleaning. Here, arthropods (Collembola) plants (sacred Lotus) served as models for principle design high temperature resistant used blast furnaces prevent tuyeres from melting. Tuyeres are double-walled, watercooled pipes supplying furnace hot air keep reduction melting process running. Tuyere failure is mainly caused by wall after direct contact liquid iron, resulting partial shut down huge energy losses. As a new approach avoid tuyere we developed type surface (i) defined cone shaped indentations (ii) heat zirconium/corundum coating “ferrophobic” i.e. it forms iron 1500 °C angle exceeding 130°. Theoretical considerations indicate that infiltrates these only partially if this aperture satisfy an inequality condition. Since conductivity remaining gas trapped inside cones five orders magnitude lower than copper, overall flow into substantially reduced outer walls much less prone