Bubble behaviors during subcooled pool boiling in water and nonionic surfactant aqueous solution

The progresses of understanding of the surfactant adsorption at the hydrophilic solid-liquid interface from extensive experimental studies are reviewed here. In this respect the kinetic and equilibrium studies involves anionic, cationic, non-ionic and mixed surfactants at the solid surface from the solution. Kinetics and equilibrium adsorption of surfactants at the solid-liquid interface depend on the nature of surfactants and the nature of the solid surface. Studies have been reported on adsorption kinetics at the solid-liquid interface primarily on the adsorption of non-ionic surfactant on silica and limited studies on cationic surfactant on silica and anionic surfactant on cotton and cellulose. The typical isotherm of surfactants in general, can be subdivided into four regions. Four-regime isotherm was mainly observed for adsorption of ionic surfactant on oppositely charged solid surface and adsorption of non-ionic surfactant on silica surface. Region IV of the adsorption isotherm is commonly a plateau region above the CMC, it may also show a maximum above the CMC. Isotherms of four different regions are discussed in detail. Influences of different parameters such as molecular structure, temperature, salt concentration that are very important in surfactant adsorption are reviewed here. Atomic force microscopy study of different surfactants show the self-assembly and mechanism of adsorption at the solid-liquid interface. Adsorption behaviour and mechanism of different mixed surfactant systems such as anionic-cationic, anionic-non-ionic and cationic-non-ionic are reviewed. Mixture of surface-active materials can show synergistic interactions, which can be manifested as enhanced surface activity, spreading, foaming, detergency and many other phenomena.

Enhancing the critical heat flux (CHF) of industrial boilers by surface texturing can lead to substantial energy savings and global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but fundamentally this phenomenon is not well understood. Prior studies on boiling crisis indicate that CHF monotonically increases with increasing texture density. Here we report on the existence of maxima in CHF enhancement at intermediate texture density using measurements on parametrically designed plain and nano-textured micropillar surfaces. Using high-speed optical and infrared imaging, we study the dynamics of dry spot heating and rewetting phenomena and reveal that the dry spot heating timescale is of the same order as that of the gravity and liquid imbibition-induced dry spot rewetting timescale. Based on these insights, we develop a coupled thermal-hydraulic model that relates CHF enhancement to rewetting of a hot dry spot on the boiling surface, thereby revealing the mechanism governing the hitherto unknown CHF enhancement maxima.

Boiling—a process that has powered industries since the steam age—is governed by bubble formation. State-of-the-art boiling surfaces often increase bubble nucleation via roughness and/or wettability modification to increase performance. However, without active in situ control of bubbles, temperature or steam generation cannot be adjusted for a given heat input. Here we report the ability to turn bubbles ‘on and off' independent of heat input during boiling both temporally and spatially via molecular manipulation of the boiling surface. As a result, we can rapidly and reversibly alter heat transfer performance up to an order of magnitude. Our experiments show that this active control is achieved by electrostatically adsorbing and desorbing charged surfactants to alter the wettability of the surface, thereby affecting nucleation. This approach can improve performance and flexibility in existing boiling technologies as well as enable emerging or unprecedented energy applications.