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Experimental study on developing in-situ hierarchical micro/nanocrystals for improved capillary wicking

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Abstract

The superior capillary wicking capability of hierarchical surfaces determined by the capillary pressure and viscous resistance plays a critical role in developing the high-efficient thermal management devices. In this study, a novel chemical oxide method for fabricating the in situ micro/nanocrystal structures on the copper substrates with prominently improved capillary wicking capability is proposed. Single-scaled and hierarchical structures can be fabricated, and the capillary wicking capability of the hierarchical structures exhibits the much higher wicking coefficient than that of the single-scaled structures. The wicking coefficient on the nanosheet and micro-flowers hierarchical surface was measured as 3.77 mm/s0.5, which indicates a maximum improvement of 146.4% compared to single-scaled structures. This hierarchical structure can provide two-tier pores for strengthening the capillary pressure driven by the nanoscale pores and reducing the viscous resistance driven by the micropores. It is worth noting that the ultrafast wicking on the hierarchical surface is useful in creating extremely effective thermal management systems and advanced heat exchangers.

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Data will be available on request.

Abbreviations

l :

Wcking distance, [mm]

P cap :

Capillary pressure

K :

Permeability

t t :

Time, [s]

W :

Wicking coefficient, [mm/s0.5]

R f :

Dynamic liquid wicking front, [mm]

R c :

Contact line, [mm]

R t :

Inner diameter, [mm]

V initial :

Initial volume of water, [μL]

H initial :

Initial height of water, [mm]

F cap :

Capillary force

F friction :

Frictional force

R geometry :

Geometry curvature of the liquid

A area :

Cross-sectional area

C 1 :

Empirical constant

C 2 :

Empirical constant

B 1 :

Empirical constant

P :

Perimeter of dynamic wicking liquid front

NG:

Nanograss

NGMP:

Nanograss and micro-petals

NGMF:

Nanograss and micro-flowers

NSMF:

Nanosheets and micro-flowers

Σ :

Surface tension, [N/m]

θ :

Contact angle

μ :

Viscosity

δ :

Thickness

ε :

Porosity

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Acknowledgements

This research is financially supported by National Key Research and Development Program (No.2022YFE0198800), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52076139).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chian-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Xiao Yuan, Yanping Du, Guochao Fei & Ruijie Yang

  2. Department of Engineering, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall TR109FE, United Kingdom

    Yanping Du

  3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, 510006, Guangzhou, China

    Chao Wang

  4. School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Shunde Graduate School, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Qian Xu

  5. MOE Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, Beijing Key Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Chuan Li

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  1. Xiao Yuan
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Contributions

Xiao Yuan conducted conceptualization, cethodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing – original draft, visualization. Yanping Du conducted writing – review & editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. Guochao Fei, Ruijie Yang, Chao Wang, Qian Xu and Chuan Li conducted validation, investigation, data curation.

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Correspondence to Yanping Du.

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Yuan, X., Du, Y., Fei, G. et al. Experimental study on developing in-situ hierarchical micro/nanocrystals for improved capillary wicking. Microfluid Nanofluid 27, 31 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-023-02641-8

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