Heat Transfer Enhancement Accompanying Leidenfrost State Suppression at Ultrahigh Temperatures

The well-known Leidenfrost effect is the formation of a vapor layer between a liquid and an underlying hot surface. This insulating vapor layer severely degrades heat transfer and results in surface dryout. We measure the heat transfer enhancement and dryout prevention benefits accompanying electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state. Interfacial electric fields in the vapor layer can attract liquid toward the surface and promote wetting. This principle can suppress dryout even at ultrahigh temperatures exceeding 500 °C, which is more than 8 times the Leidenfrost superheat for organic solvents. Robust Leidenfrost state suppression is observed for a variety of liquids, ranging from low electrical conductivity organic solvents to electrically conducting salt solutions. Elimination of the vapor layer increases heat dissipation capacity by more than 1 order of magnitude. Heat removal capacities exceeding 500 W/cm² are measured, which is 5 times the critical heat flux (CHF) of water on common engineering surfaces. Furthermore, the heat transfer rate can be electrically controlled by the applied voltage. The underlying science is explained via a multiphysics analytical model which captures the coupled electrostatic-fluid-thermal transport phenomena underlying electrostatic Leidenfrost state suppression. Overall, this work uncovers the physics underlying dryout prevention and demonstrates electrically tunable boiling heat transfer with ultralow power consumption