Micro-Nano Scale Surface Coating for Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer: A Critical Review

Nucleate boiling is a phase change heat transfer process with a wide range of applications i.e., steam power plants, thermal desalination, heat pipes, domestic heating and cooling, refrigeration and air-conditioning, electronic cooling, cooling of turbo-machinery, waste heat recovery and much more. Due to its quite broad range of applications, any improvement in this area leads to significant economic, environmental and energy efficiency outcomes. This paper presents a comprehensive review and critical analysis on the recent developments in the area of micro-nano scale coating technologies, materials, and their applications for modification of surface geometry and chemistry, which play an important role in the enhancement of nucleate boiling heat transfer. In many industrial applications boiling is a surface phenomenon, which depends upon its variables such as surface area, thermal conductivity, wettability, porosity, and roughness. Compared to subtractive methods, the surface coating is more versatile in material selection, simple, quick, robust in implementation and is quite functional to apply to already installed systems. The present status of these techniques for boiling heat transfer enhancement, along with their future challenges, enhancement potentials, limitations, and their possible industrial implementation are also discussed in this paper.