Sustainable anti-frosting surface for efficient thermal transport
Rongfu Wen, Yushan Ying, Xuehu Ma, Ronggui Yang
Abstract
Inhibiting frost formation is of fundamental importance for many industrial applications, ranging from various infrastructures to thermal systems. Sustaining a frost-free surface without reducing heat transfer efficiency is a great challenge. We hereby propose a counterintuitive approach to achieve sustainable anti-frosting under high heat flux subcooled condensation by accelerating the nucleation-to-departure cycle of condensed liquid, demonstrated by manipulating initial nucleation and reducing thermal resistance using a three-dimensional nanowire network. High heat flux subcooled condensation is maintained without frost formation on the frost-free surface at a low surface temperature of −15°C for more than 5 h in humid air with a relative humidity of 75%. More than 10 times enhancement in the steady-state heat flux is obtained on the frost-free surface compared with the state-of-the-art low solid fraction non-wetting nanostructured surfaces. This passive frost-free surface may hold promise for increasing the efficiency of thermal systems while inspiring the design of frost-free surfaces.