Thermal Coatings in Reseach and Development
In addition to conducting thermal R&D, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) has an advanced research effort in coatings for several applications, primarily for thermal applications, including:
- Applied Nanoscale Corrosion Erosion Resistant (ANCER™) Coatings allow for greater life when high purity de-ionized water is used in copper microchannel systems. The coatings reduce erosion and corrosion by more than two orders of magnitude while allowing for reduced pH and dissolved oxygen control, significantly reducing operating costs. ACT uses electrochemical techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of various passivation techniques.
- Raman spectroscopy-based measurements of thin-film thickness
- Boiling Enhancement/Micro-porous Coatings improve the boiling heat transfer coefficient by providing nucleation sites. They can also help stabilize pumped two-phase flow in mini-channels.
- Self-Assembled Monolayer (SAM) Coatings for Condensation Enhancement can provide a non-wetting surface. This aids in condensation heat transfer, where the drop-wise condensation coefficient can be ten times higher than the standard film condensation coefficient.
- Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PE-CVD) coatings have two applications for nanoparticle/fluid mixtures. Adding high thermal conductivity nanoparticles to fluids increases the fluid thermal conductivity and heat transfer performance, but the particles agglomerate over long storage times. PE-CVD coatings can be used to stabilize the nanofluids.
- PE-CVD coated aluminum particles have been shown to increase the enthalpy of combustion of liquid fuels by preventing agglomeration and oxidation of the aluminum particles.
Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) reactor for depositing uniform coatings that encapsulate metallic nanoparticles, thereby producing a stabilization layer around the nanoparticle that eliminates agglomeration.