Spreading and Capillary Imbibition of Viscous Oil Lens into an Open-Cell Porous Structure.

Oil pollution in the ocean is becoming more and more of a serious issue, which increases interest in both ways for combating its cause and methods for observing and monitoring how oil spreads. A promising approach based on an optical method with empirical relations for selected viscous oil-water systems is presented. Based on a modified melamine sponge (MMS), the microscopic spreading and oil capillary penetration phenomenon of the porous structure were investigated.

Direct Visualization of the Behavior and Shapes of the Nanoscale Menisci of an Evaporating Water Droplet on a Hydrophilic Nanotextured Surface via High-Resolution Synchrotron X-ray Imaging.

Despite considerable research interest due to omnipresent and practical importance of interfacial phenomena (e.g., wetting and dewetting) on nanotextured surfaces in the academic and industrial fields, direct visualization of the behavior and shapes of liquid-vapor interfaces between nanoscale structures remains an arduous task because of the resolution limitations of visualization techniques.

Wetting Criteria of Intrinsic Contact Angle To Distinguish between Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Micro-/Nanotextured Surfaces: Experimental and Theoretical Analysis with Synchrotron X-ray Imaging.

In this study, the existing knowledge on the wetting criterion, that is, the intrinsic contact angle, for distinguishing between hydrophilic and hydrophobic textured surfaces is verified experimentally. A precise apparent contact angle is measured on micro-, nano-, and micro-/nanotextured surfaces to quantitatively define the surface-wetting conditions. In particular, X-ray tomography is introduced to measure precise geometric morphologies of nano- and micro-/nanotextured surfaces, and the wetting state of the textured surfaces is clearly visualized using synchrotron X-ray imaging.

Dynamics of contact line depinning during droplet evaporation based on thermodynamics.

For several decades, evaporation phenomena have been intensively investigated for a broad range of applications. However, the dynamics of contact line depinning during droplet evaporation has only been inductively inferred on the basis of experimental data and remains unclear. This study focuses on the dynamics of contact line depinning during droplet evaporation based on thermodynamics.

Enhanced heat transfer is dependent on thickness of graphene films: the heat dissipation during boiling.

Boiling heat transfer (BHT) is a particularly efficient heat transport method because of the latent heat associated with the process. However, the efficiency of BHT decreases significantly with increasing wall temperature when the critical heat flux (CHF) is reached. Graphene has received much recent research attention for applications in thermal engineering due to its large thermal conductivity.

Self-assembled foam-like graphene networks formed through nucleate boiling.

Self-assembled foam-like graphene (SFG) structures were formed using a simple nucleate boiling method, which is governed by the dynamics of bubble generation and departure in the graphene colloid solution. The conductivity and sheet resistance of the calcined (400°C) SFG film were 11.8 S·cm(-1) and 91.