Onion inspired anti-hydrate surfaces

Avoiding hydrate plugging in gas- and oil-production and transport systems has long been a challenge. Traditional hydrate mitigation strategies through applying chemicals and thermal destabilization are costly and eco-unfriendly. Passive anti-hydrate surfaces with potential to enable self-removal of hydrates are desired. Inspired by the onion film that has low adhesion to solids, a hydrate-phobic surface with super low hydrate adhesion strength is fabricated. The porous structures below surface as well as the surface cuticle layer are found to be crucial for the low hydrate adhesion on onion film that is composed of monolayer epidermal cells. By engineering abundant pores below smooth surface, the onion inspired surface can decrease the cyclopentane (CyC5) hydrate adhesion strength from 95 kPa on glass to 4.7 kPa. The onion inspired surface also maintains super low hydrate adhesion (8.7 kPa) after 20 hydrating/de-hydrating cycles. Furthermore, a regenerable artificial cuticle layer is also integrated on this hydrate-phobic surface, and enables even lower hydrate adhesion (2.9 kPa). Therefore, the onion inspired surface can provide alternative solutions for future hydrate mitigation.