Sustaining Superheated Liquid within Hydrophilic Surface Texture.

During pool boiling of water, it is advantageous to keep liquid touching the surface in order to delay the onset of filmwise boiling. This allows water to remain in the nucleate boiling regime, leading to increased heat transfer. In this work, we propose a mechanism to sustain superheated liquid within hydrophilic pores. This mechanism for the design of superwetting hydrophilic surfaces does not rely on the transport of vapor and offers an additional pathway for wetting via the condensation of vapor within the surface texture. We adapt nucleation theory to design the surface geometry and implement molecular dynamics simulations to verify this concept. Simulation results are consistent with theory and demonstrate superheated liquid residing within the surface texture.