Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-28-2022
Publication Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
12
First page number:
1
Last page number:
10
Abstract
Improving boiling is challenging due to the unpredictable nature of bubbles. One way to enhance boiling is with surfactants, which alter the solid–liquid and liquid–vapor interfaces. The conventional wisdom established by previous studies suggests that heat transfer enhancement is optimized near the critical micelle concentration (CMC), which is an equilibrium property that depends on surfactant type. However, these studies only tested a limited number of surfactants over small concentration ranges. Here, we test a larger variety of nonionic and anionic surfactants over the widest concentration range and find that a universal, optimal concentration range exists, irrespective of CMC. To explain this, we show that surfactant-enhanced boiling is controlled by two competing phenomena: (1) the dynamic adsorption of surfactants to the interfaces and (2) the increase in liquid dynamic viscosity at very high surfactant concentrations. This dynamic adsorption is time-limited by the millisecond-lifetime of bubbles on the boiling surface—much shorter than the timescales required to see equilibrium behaviors such as CMC. At very high concentrations, increased viscosity inhibits rapid bubble growth, reducing heat transfer. We combine the effects of adsorption and viscosity through a simple proportionality, providing a succinct and useful understanding of this enhancement behavior for boiling applications.
Keywords
Boiling water reactors; Boiling-points; Equilibrium
Disciplines
Heat Transfer, Combustion | Other Environmental Sciences
File Format
File Size
2562 KB
Language
English
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Repository Citation
Mata, M. R.,
Ortiz, B.,
Luhar, D.,
Evereux, V.,
Cho, H. J.
(2022).
How Dynamic Adsorption Controls Surfactant‑enhanced Boiling.
Scientific Reports, 12
1-10.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21313-1
