HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER COMPONENT COMPRISING A LUBRICANT-IMPREGNATED SURFACE

• Main Authors: BARAC, George, BOLTON, Leslie, W, MILJKOVIC, Nenad, SETT, Soumyadip
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 02.03.2022
• Subjects: BLASTING; CHEMISTRY; DETAILS OF HEAT-EXCHANGE AND HEAT-TRANSFER APPARATUS, OFGENERAL APPLICATION; FUELS; HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL; HEATING; LIGHTING; LUBRICANTS; LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; METALLURGY; PEAT; PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; USE OF CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES EITHER ALONE OR AS LUBRICATINGINGREDIENTS IN A LUBRICATING COMPOSITION; WEAPONS

A heat and mass transfer component comprises a lubricant-impregnated surface including hydrophobic surface features, which comprise nanostructured surface protrusions having a hydrophobic species attached thereto. The hydrophobic surface features are impregnated with a fluorinated lubricant having a viscosity in a range from about 400 mPa·s to about 6000 mPa·s. A method of fabricating a lubricant-impregnated surface on a heat and mass transfer component comprises: cleaning a thermally conductive substrate to form a cleaned substrate; exposing the cleaned substrate to a hot water or hot alkaline solution to form a thermally conductive substrate having nanostructured surface protrusions; depositing a hydrophobic species on the nanostructured surface protrusions to form hydrophobic surface features; and coating the hydrophobic surface features with a fluorinated lubricant having a viscosity in a range from 400 mPa·s to 6000 mPa·s. The heat and mass transfer component may exhibit a substantial increase in heat transfer coefficient during hydrocarbon condensation.