Significant boiling enhancement with surfaces combining superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic patterns

In this work we describe the manufacturing and characterization of patterned surfaces with large spatial contrast in wettability. We find drastic enhancement of pool boiling performance in water. In comparison to a hydrophilic SiO₂ surface with a wetting angle of 7°, surfaces combining superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic patterns can quadruple the heat transfer coefficient (HTC). Superhydrophilic surface with hydrophobic islands can increase the critical heat flux (CHF) by 80%. This performance enhancement is important for applications such as electronics cooling, because the increased HTC allows a greater amount of heat to be removed at a lower wall superheat.