Negative pressures in nanoporous membranes for thin film evaporation

Rong Xiao, Shalabh C. Maroo, Evelyn N. Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

99 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a nanoporous membrane-based approach, which decouples the capillary pressure from the viscous resistance, to achieve high driving pressures and efficient liquid delivery for thin film evaporation. By using alumina membranes with ≈150 nm pore diameters, absolute liquid pressures as low as -300 kPa were achieved using isopropyl alcohol, while dissipating maximum interfacial heat fluxes of ≈96 W/cm2. Design guidelines are provided to achieve higher interfacial heat fluxes with reduced membrane thicknesses. This work shows a promising approach to address thermal management needs for next generation electronic devices.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number123103
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume102
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 25 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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