Self-assembled liquid metal nanoporous film with durability for efficient phase-change thermal energy management via surface and interface engineering

Films with nanoengineered surfaces have found extensive utilization in versatile applications, such as freshwater harvesting, water puri fication, steam generation and thermal energy management. Herein, we develop a liquid metal (LM) nanoporous film on a copper substrate via a simple and scalable bubbleinduced self -assembly method. The LM nanoporous film not only provides abundant nucleation sites of bubbles due to nanoscale pores, but also generates CuGa 2 intermetallic compound (IMC) as a thermal interface layer with low interfacial resistance due to in situ alloying with the copper substrate. When the film is used in ethanol -based boiling system, it shows a 172% enhanced heat transfer coef ficient compared to the pristine copper. In addition, the metallic wetting force between the LM nanoporous film and CuGa 2 IMC results in a durable nanoporous film. When the LM nanoporous film is utilized for the phase -change thermal energy management of a high -power -density light emitting diode, it leads to a distinct decrease in temperature by 20.7 degree celsius relative to the pristine copper. This work provides a strategy to combine nanoengineered surfaces with interface engineering to enhance phasechange heat transfer, which can result in ef ficient energy transport in various energy -related applications.