Enhanced Evaporation of Ultrathin Water Films on Silicon-Terminated Si₃N₄ Nanopore Membranes

Abstract

Water evaporation confined in nanoscale is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature and has crucial importance in a broad range of technical applications. With the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation, we elucidate nanothin water film evaporation characteristics on a silicon nitride nanopore membrane considering the effects of pore size and pore chemistry. Pore chemistry plays the main role in regulating the evaporation flux. The terminated Si atoms on the pore surface lead to a higher evaporation intensity than the N ones. We attribute this enhancement to the transition of the structural properties of fluid, where liquid molecules are packed loosely and disorderedly under the inducement of terminated silicon atoms. The findings in the present work can contribute to the fundamental understanding of the nanopore-enhanced evaporation process and provide new guidance to the design of advanced nanopore membrane materials.

Potential of Indirect Regenerative Evaporative Cooling System (M-Cycle) for Electronic Applications

“…Thus, the use of hydrophobic coatings or porous materials was also investigated in [13,16,17]. Whereas not directly devoted to IREC devices and systems, several papers were also lately devoted to the problem of nanoporous membranes wicking and evaporation processes [18][19][20][21][22].…”

Influence of heat transfer and wetting angle on condensable fluid flow through nanoporous anodic alumina membranes

“…Therefore, several works paid attention to these important factors. Several calculation approaches, such as molecular dynamic 24,25 or Monte Carlo simulation 26,27 have been utilized for the description of evaporation from nanoporous media, taking into account surface-liquid interaction or real temperature and pressure conditions. However, these methods fail to accommodate the macroscopic properties of fluids.…”

Investigation of Nano Thin Film Evaporation on Hot Spot with Nanopillar Array Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulation

“…The liquid-gas phase change heat transfer has been extensively investigated on atomic scale in past years [1][2][3][4][5]. Compared to the boiling heat transfer, the evaporative one is an effective approach to the cooling technology as it has high and stable heat dissipation capability [6,7]. For now, the nanoscale evaporation began to be utilized in the innovative devices, such as electronic chip cooling [7,8], heat pipe [9], solar vapor generation [10], water desalination [11], etc.…”

“…Compared to the boiling heat transfer, the evaporative one is an effective approach to the cooling technology as it has high and stable heat dissipation capability [6,7]. For now, the nanoscale evaporation began to be utilized in the innovative devices, such as electronic chip cooling [7,8], heat pipe [9], solar vapor generation [10], water desalination [11], etc. However, in the high-power electronic chip, the local dry out may occur on the hot spots (overheated regions), resulting in a deterioration of heat transfer.…”