@article{43c1bf565a494594bd6c0ceb02587461,
title = "Microscale Confinement and Wetting Contrast Enable Enhanced and Tunable Condensation",
abstract = "Dropwise condensation represents the upper limit of thermal transport efficiency for liquid-to-vapor phase transition. A century of research has focused on promoting dropwise condensation by attempting to overcome limitations associated with thermal resistance and poor surface-modifier durability. Here, we show that condensation in a microscale gap formed by surfaces having a wetting contrast can overcome these limitations. Spontaneous out-of-plane condensate transfer between the contrasting parallel surfaces decouples the nanoscale nucleation behavior, droplet growth dynamics, and shedding processes to enable minimization of thermal resistance and elimination of surface modification. Experiments on pure steam combined with theoretical analysis and numerical simulation confirm the breaking of intrinsic limits to classical condensation and demonstrate a gap-dependent heat-transfer coefficient with up to 240% enhancement compared to dropwise condensation. Our study presents a promising mechanism and technology for compact energy and water applications where high, tunable, gravity-independent, and durable phase-change heat transfer is required.",
keywords = "condensation, droplet transfer, microconfinement, nanoengineering, thermal management, wettability contrast",
author = "Xiao Yan and Feipeng Chen and Chongyan Zhao and Xiong Wang and Longnan Li and Siavash Khodakarami and {Fazle Rabbi}, Kazi and Jiaqi Li and Hoque, {Muhammad Jahidul} and Feng Chen and Jie Feng and Nenad Miljkovic",
note = "Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the National Science Foundation under Award No. 1554249. N.M. gratefully acknowledges funding support from the International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. N.M. gratefully acknowledges the fruitful discussion with Professor Jonathan Boreyko of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University during a visit in April 2019. Scanning electron microscopy was carried out in the Materials Research Laboratory Central Facilities, University of Illinois. The authors appreciate the help from Mr. Qiyuan Wu and Mr. Yimeng Qin with SOCAL surface fabrication. X.Y. appreciates Dr. Soumyadip Sett, Tianyu Yang, Yimeng Qin, and Tarek Gebrael for their help with the vacuum chamber and sample preparation. X.Y. thanks Wentao Yang for his help with numerical calculations of the liquid bridge profile. X.Y. also appreciates Professor Jonathan Boreyko for the helpful discussion during his visit to UIUC in September 2021. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.",
year = "2022",
month = jun,
day = "28",
doi = "10.1021/acsnano.2c02669",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "16",
pages = "9510--9522",
journal = "ACS Nano",
issn = "1936-0851",
publisher = "American Chemical Society",
number = "6",
}