Interfacial wicking dynamics and its impact on critical heat flux of boiling heat transfer

Morphologically driven dynamic wickability is essential for determining the hydrodynamic status of solid-liquid interface. We demonstrate that the dynamic wicking can play an integral role in supplying and propagating liquid through the interface, and govern the critical heat flux (CHF) against surface dry-out during boiling heat transfer. For the quantitative control of wicking, we manipulate the characteristic lengths of hexagonally arranged nanopillars within sub-micron range through nanosphere lithography combined with top-down metal-assisted chemical etching. Strong hemi-wicking over the manipulated interface (i.e., wicking coefficients) of 1.28 mm/s^0.5 leads to 164% improvement of CHF compared to no wicking. As a theoretical guideline, our wickability-CHF model can make a perfect agreement with improved CHF, which cannot be predicted by the classic models pertaining to just wettability and roughness effects, independently.