Project description
Understanding liquid-vapour interfacial transport
Liquid-vapour phase change is essential for power generation and thermal processes. Advances in micro- and nanoengineering emphasise the importance of interfacial transport resistance. However, understanding interface accommodation coefficients (IACs), which quantify the probabilities of evaporation and condensation, remains challenging due to limitations in current experimental designs. The ERC-funded DIAL project will investigate IACs by studying surface charges, contamination, and nanoconfinement through infrared and confocal Raman microscopy. It aims to establish a baseline for IACs using droplet evaporation in a vacuum, analyse the impact of contaminants on evaporation from microscale pores, and link IACs to device performance. These experiments will enhance our understanding of liquid-vapour interfacial transport and provide design insights for energy and water systems.
Objective
Liquid-vapor phase change is essential in power generation, heating and cooling, thermal desalination, and membrane distillation. With the advancements enabled by micro/nanoengineering of phase change devices, the interfacial transport resistance becomes increasingly important, dictating the ultimate performance limit. However, fundamental understanding of the interfacial process remains elusive, particularly regarding the interface accommodation coefficients (IACs), which quantify the probability of evaporation and condensation events at the molecular level. Characterizing IACs has been a long-standing challenge, primarily due to the lack of experimental designs sensitive enough to molecule-interface interactions and capable of distinguishing various contributing factors.
The DIAL project aims to demystify the complexities surrounding IACs arising from three key factors – surface charges, interface contamination, and nanoconfinement. Here, we decouple these largely overlooked or insufficiently studied factors by designing a series of targeted experiments, leveraging IR and confocal Raman microscopy for combined thermometry and chemical analysis. With evaporating droplets in vacuum, we establish the baseline for IACs first on pure and then on charged and contaminated fluids. Meanwhile, to investigate the effect associated with phase change devices, we characterize contaminant migration and the corresponding impact on evaporation from membranes with microscale pores and at the same time, build a multiscale model relating IACs to device performance. Finally, with evaporation from sparsely spaced nanotube arrays, we examine the nanoconfinement effect on IACs, overcoming the optical diffraction limit.
By isolating or minimizing specific effects in each configuration, our experiments collectively advance the fundamental understanding of liquid-vapor interfacial transport while offering practical design insights for all interface-sensitive energy and water systems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy
- engineering and technology chemical engineering separation technologies desalination
- engineering and technology chemical engineering separation technologies distillation
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
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