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A TEAM of engineers investigating how wetting and adhesion affects heat transfer says its findings can be used to modify thermal conductance and characterise interface bonding between solids and liquids.

Engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute used molecular dynamics simulations to calculate how fast heat is transferred between water and a range of solid surface chemistries. The results indicate that the speed is directly proportional to thestrength of the liquid bond to the solid.

The team says it can modify the flow of heat across the interface by applying a thin coating to the solid. 

The team says the fundamental discovery improves the understanding of how water adheres or flows past solid surfaces and has implications for heat transfer applications and processes including boiling and condensation. Shekhar Garde, study co-author and head of Rensselaer’s department of chemical and biological engineering, says: “Of particular interest is how this discovery can benefit new systems for cooling and displacing heat from computer chips, a critical issue currently facing the semiconductor industry.”

Also, by measuring the rate of heat flow between two materials the team says it can characterise the strength of interfacial bonds. From a biochemical engineering standpoint, understanding the behaviour of water on various surfaces has implication for molecular binding and biological self-assembly at interfaces.

The research is published in Physical Review Letters DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.156101