The static and dynamic wetting properties of a 3D graphene foam network are reported. The foam is synthesized using template-directed chemical vapor deposition and contains pores several hundred micrometers in dimension while the walls of the foam comprise few-layer graphene sheets that are coated with Teflon. Water contact angle measurements reveal that the foam is superhydrophobic with an advancing contact angle of ∼163 degrees while the receding contact angle is ∼143 degrees. The extremely water repellent nature of the foam is also confirmed when impacting water droplets are able to completely rebound from the surface. Such superhydrophobic graphene foams show potential in a variety of applications ranging from anti-sticking and self-cleaning to anti-corrosion and low-friction coatings.
Previous studies of the interaction of water with graphene-coated surfaces have been limited to flat (smooth) surfaces. Here we created a rough surface by nanopatterning and then draped the surface with a single-layer graphene sheet. We found that the ultrasheer graphene drape prevents the penetration of water into the textured surface thereby drastically reducing the contact angle hysteresis (which is a measure of frictional energy dissipation) and preventing the liquid contact line from getting pinned to the substrate. This has important technological implications since the main obstacle to the motion of liquid drops on rough surfaces is contact angle hysteresis and contact line pinning. Graphene drapes could therefore enable enhanced droplet mobility which is required in a wide range of applications in micro and nanofluidics. Compared to polymer coatings that could fill the cavities between the nano/micropores or significantly alter the roughness profile of the substrate, graphene provides the thinnest (i.e., most sheer) and most conformal drape that is imaginable. Despite its extreme thinness, the graphene drape is mechanically robust, chemically stable, and offers high flexibility and resilience which can enable it to reliably drape arbitrarily complex surface topologies. Graphene drapes may therefore provide a hitherto unavailable ability to tailor the dynamic wettability of surfaces for a variety of applications.
This paper reports the first integration of laser-etched polycrystalline diamond microchannels with template-fabricated microporous copper for extreme convective boiling in a composite heat sink for power electronics and energy conversion. Diamond offers the highest thermal conductivity near room temperature, and enables aggressive heat spreading along triangular channel walls with 1:1 aspect ratio. Conformally coated porous copper with thickness 25 µm and 5 µm pore size optimizes fluid and heat transport for convective boiling within the diamond channels. Data reported here include 1280 W cm −2 of heat removal from 0.7 cm 2 surface area with temperature rise beyond fluid saturation less than 21 K, corresponding to 6.3 × 10 5 W m −2 K −1 . This heat sink has the potential to dissipate much larger localized heat loads with small temperature nonuniformity (5 kW cm −2 over 200 µm × 200 µm with <3 K temperature difference). A microfluidic manifold assures uniform distribution of liquid over the heat sink surface with negligible pumping power requirements (e.g., <1.4 × 10 −4 of the thermal power dissipated). This breakthrough integration of functional materials and the resulting experimental data set a very high bar for microfluidic heat removal.
Gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) dissipate high power densities which generate hotspots and cause thermomechanical problems. Here, we propose and simulate GaN-based HEMT technologies that can remove power densities exceeding 30 kW/cm 2 at relatively low mass flow rate and pressure drop. Thermal performance of the microcooler module is investigated by modeling both single-and two-phase flow conditions. A reduced-order modeling approach, based on an extensive literature review, is used to predict the appropriate range of heat transfer coefficients associated with the flow regimes for the flow conditions. Finite element simulations are performed to investigate the temperature distribution from GaN to parallel microchannels of the microcooler. Single-and two-phase conjugate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations provide a lower bound of the total flow resistance in the microcooler as well as overall thermal resistance from GaN HEMT to working fluid. A parametric study is performed to optimize the thermal performance of the microcooler. The modeling results provide detailed flow conditions for the microcooler in order to investigate the required range of heat transfer coefficients for removal of heat fluxes up to 30 kW/cm 2 and a junction temperature maintained below 250 C. The detailed modeling results include local temperature and velocity fields in the microcooler module, which can help in identifying the approximate locations of the maximum velocity and recirculation regions that are susceptible to dryout conditions.
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