Surface grown copper nanowires for improved cooling efficiency

Abstract

The interactions between heat sink surfaces and coolant play important roles in cooling methods. This study relies upon controlled nanostructuring of heat sink surfaces that produces orders of magnitude increases in surface area, excites local vortexes and improves the phase change mechanisms to enhance cooling efficiency. A scalable, economical and environmentally benign technique to grow copper nanowires with a strong/conductive base-anchorage on the surface of copper and related materials is described. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to monitor the reduction and morphology of the nanowires. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction (ED) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to understand the structure of the as-grown copper hydroxide nanowires and reduced copper nanowires. The convective heat transfer of nanostructured surfaces was measured in the laboratory and compared to a theoretical treatment of the nanowire array effects on convective heat transfer. The various surface treatments tested showed heat transfer increases of up to 93% in good agreement with a theoretical analysis.

Description
Keywords
Nanoscale heat transfer, heat sink surface cooling, copper nanowire, BOILING HEAT-TRANSFER, MELTING BEHAVIOR, TEMPLATE SYNTHESIS, FORCED-CONVECTION, LASER-ABLATION, FLOW, NANOSTRUCTURES, NANOCRYSTALS, IMPACT, ARRAYS, Engineering, Multidisciplinary, Engineering
Citation
Balachandra, A., Darsanasiri, A., Harsini, I., Soroushian, P., Bakker, M. (2018): Surface Grown Copper Nanowires for Improved Cooling Efficiency. Cogent Engineering. 5(1).