Factors affecting the wettability of different surface materials with vegetable oil at high temperatures and its relation to cleanability

The main aim of the work was to investigate the wettability of different surface materials with vegetable oil (olive oil) over the temperature range of 25–200°C to understand the differences in cleanability of different surfaces exposed to high temperatures in food processes. The different surface materials investigated include stainless steel (reference), PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), silicone, quasicrystalline (Al, Fe, Cr) and ceramic coatings: zirconium oxide (ZrO2), zirconium nitride (ZrN) and titanium aluminum nitride (TiAlN).

The ceramic coatings were deposited on stainless steel with two different levels of roughness. The cosine of the contact angle of olive oil on different surface materials rises linearly with increasing temperature. Among the materials analyzed, polymers (PTFE, silicone) gave the lowest cosθ values. Studies of the effect of roughness and surface flaws on wettability revealed that the cosθ values increases with increasing roughness and surface flaws.

Correlation analysis indicates that the measured contact angle values gave useful information for grouping easy-clean polymer materials from the other materials; for the latter group, there is no direct relation between contact angle and cleanability. In addition to surface wettability with oil many other factors such as roughness and surface defects play an essential role in determining their cleanability.