Heat transfer enhancement using nanoporous Teflon surfaces

Heat transfer from a liquid-vapor phase change is widely used in industry for thermal management. Improving the heat transfer efficiency of the phase change could yield substantial energy savings and reduce greenhouse emissions. In this work, the heat transfer performance of a nanoporous Teflon surface was tested using droplet vaporization experiments with acetone as the working fluid. The nanoporous surface was heated to various temperatures and the vaporization process was recorded using a digital camera at a high motion frame rate of 60 fps. The time required to vaporize a given volume of acetone and the area of the droplet on the surface were used to calculate the heat flux. The nanoporous surface demonstrated 1.8× enhanced heat transfer and 2.8× faster vaporization rates than a flat Teflon surface for the same liquid volume.