ERI: Nanoscale and in-situ measurement of evaporating liquid thin film thickness

ERI：蒸发液体薄膜厚度的纳米级原位测量

• 批准号: 2301973
• 负责人: Iltai Kim
• 金额: $ 19.97万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2301973&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ERI; Nanoscale; situ; measurement; evaporating

Ultrafast evaporation phenomena have been recently reported, which can be applied to design high-efficient heat transfer devices such as evaporators, coolers, and condensers. High-efficient thermal energy systems can play a critical role in the climate crisis by reducing energy consumption. However, the fundamental mechanism for ultrafast evaporation beyond the theoretical limit is still being determined because of the limitation of measurement technology for the nanoscale liquid film dynamics during evaporation. The highly sensitive imaging technique based on nanophotonics and optical interference has been introduced to explore the concentration, temperature, and thickness, but not nanoscale liquid film thickness in evaporation. Therefore, the principle of this project is to provide a deep understanding of the underlying mechanism of ultrafast evaporation by measurement and analysis. The project will also include significant educational activities such as undergraduate/graduate research programs, course development, and outreach program for local high school students.The goal of this project is to study the evaporating liquid thin film in nanoscale and real-time to provide experimental evidence for the role of transition region in the recently reported ultrafast evaporation and understand its underlying physics. Ultrafast evaporation is reported on hydrophilic surfaces, but its working mechanism is not clear because of measurement difficulty with existing techniques. This project will achieve this goal by experiment and analysis: (i) Nanoscale thin film calibration with a sub-nanometer actuator on graphene/Au film metasurface, (ii) Nanoscale thin film dynamics under varying surface wettability and heat flux on flat and two-dimensional nanochannel, and (iii) Development of simultaneous technique of surface plasmon resonance imaging and reflection interference fringe for a broad range of film dynamics from sun-nanometers to hundreds of micron scales. Surface plasmon resonance imaging will be used to detect liquid film thickness variation in sub-nanometer resolution with the metasurface technique. The reflection interference fringe technique will also be verified to complement the result by surface plasmon resonance. Adiabatic and diffusive film theory will be compared with experiments and numerical simulation such as ray tracing and modeling. This project is expected to provide a breakthrough in near-surface phenomena, including evaporation, boiling, condensation, and surface wetting, through innovative optical characterization and its physical understanding.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

最近已经报道了超快蒸发现象，可以应用于设计高效传热设备，例如蒸发器，冷却器和冷凝器。高效的热能系统可以通过减少能源消耗来在气候危机中发挥关键作用。但是，由于蒸发过程中纳米级液体膜动力学的测量技术限制了测量技术的限制，因此仍在确定超出理论极限之外的超快蒸发的基本机制。已经引入了基于纳米光子和光学干扰的高度敏感的成像技术，以探索蒸发中的浓度，温度和厚度，但不是纳米级液体膜厚度。因此，该项目的原理是通过测量和分析深入了解超快蒸发的潜在机制。该项目还将包括重要的教育活动，例如本科/研究生研究计划，课程开发和针对当地高中生的外展计划。该项目的目的是研究纳米级和实时蒸发的液体薄膜和实时的蒸发液薄膜，以提供实验性证据，以实验过渡地区在最近报道的超级快速蒸发和理解其基础物理学中的作用。在亲水性表面上报道了超快蒸发，但由于现有技术的测量困难，其工作机制尚不清楚。该项目将通过实验和分析来实现这一目标：（i）在石墨烯/au膜膜上的纳米级薄膜校准，（ii）在平坦和二维纳米渠道和（iii）表面杂货及其反射的纳米级薄膜动力学下，纳米级薄膜动力学在变化的表面润湿和热通量上，以及（iii）的发展。薄膜动力学从日光纳米到数百微米尺度。表面等离子体共振成像将用于通过元表技术在亚纳米分辨率中检测液膜厚度变化。反射干扰条纹技术还将得到验证，以补充表面等离子体共振的结果。绝热和扩散膜理论将与实验和数值模拟（例如射线追踪和建模）进行比较。预计该项目将通过创新的光学特征及其身体理解来提供近地面现象的突破，包括蒸发，沸腾，凝结和表面润湿。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来通过评估来支持的，因此值得通过评估。