Recent developments, challenges, and pathways to stable dropwise condensation: A perspective

Dropwise condensation (DWC) on non-wetting surfaces has remarkable potential to enhance heat transfer performance compared to filmwise condensation on wetting substrates. In this article, we discuss important recent developments and challenges in the field of DWC, including durability of DWC-promoting coatings, DWC of low surface tension fluids, physical mechanisms governing DWC, unconventional methods to achieve DWC, and promising metrology techniques for DWC. We end the article by providing a road map detailing where we believe the community should direct both fundamental and applied efforts in order to solve the identified century-old challenges that limit DWC implementation.