Designing a surface that makes boiling water more efficient
The key to the new surface treatment is to add texture at several different size scales. The electron microscope image shows millimeter-scale pillars and dents (first two images), whose surface is covered with tiny nanometer-scale protrusions (bottom two images) to increase the efficiency of the boiling reaction. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Boiling water or other liquids is an energy-intensive step at the heart of many industrial processes, including most power plants, many chemical production systems, and even cooling systems for electronics. Increasing the efficiency of a system that heats and evaporates water can significantly reduce its energy use. Now, researchers at MIT have found a way to do just that, with surface treatments specifically designed for the materials used in the system. The increase in efficiency comes from the combination of three different types of surface modification, at different size scale...