Enhancement in boiling heat transfer performance using reduced graphene oxide coating with controllable components and porous structures

Enhancement in boiling heat transfer performance is significant for addressing thermal management bottlenecks of advanced electronic systems. Reduced graphene oxides (rGO) are regarded as promising candidates for thermal management due to their excellent thermal properties, chemical stability and adjustable wettability. In this study, rGO coatings with micron pores and controllable oxygen contents are prepared on Al substrate via cathodic electrophoretic deposition and subsequent thermal annealing, leading to enhanced pool boiling performance. The heat transfer coefficient for Al/rGO₄₅₀ is 37.2 kW m⁻² K⁻¹, which is increased by 112.6% compared with bare Al, also outperformed previously reported Al based substrates. It is assumed that the hydrophilic and aerophobic rGO coatings effectively promote the liquid infiltration and bubble departure during pool boiling process. Importantly, repeatability tests indicate the durable stability of vertically oriented rGO nanosheets. Reverse none-quilibrium molecular dynamics simulation indicates that the interfacial transmission coefficients of Al/rGO increase after thermal annealing, indicative of the enhanced heat transfer performance of heterogeneous interface. Our study opens a new avenue for endowing metal substrates with high pool boiling performance using porous carbon coating nanoengineering strategy with controllable morphology and components.