Researchers at the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed a sustainable and controllable strategy to manipulate interfacial heat transfer, paving the way for improving the performance of eco-friendly cooling in various applications such as electronics, buildings and solar panels.
Researchers at the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed a sustainable and controllable strategy to manipulate interfacial heat transfer, paving the way for improving the performance of eco-friendly cooling in various applications such as electronics, buildings and solar panels.
As demand for effective cooling solutions continues to grow due to the rising global temperature, scientists worldwide have been actively exploring energy-saving cooling technologies that are more effective. Compared to active cooling, which entirely depends on energy consumption to operate, passive cooling relies on natural processes and design principles to reduce heat and maintain a comfortable temperature with low or no energy consumption. This approach has therefore generated wide interest among researchers due to its eco-friendly nature and zero-electricity characteristic.
One emerging field of study is passive cooling using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are porous materials that can capture water vapor from the air and be used to increase energy efficiency in room temperature space cooling applications. However, MOFs typically exhibit low thermal conductivity, making them poor thermal conductors. Moreover, the presence of adsorbed water molecules in MOFs further reduces their effective thermal conductivity. This limitation leaves little room for manipulating the intrinsic thermal transport properties of MOFs to enhance their cooling performance.
Read more at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Image: Prof. Zhou Yanguang (second right), Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at HKUST, and his PhD students Fan Hongzhao (first left), Wang Guang (second left) and Li Jiawang (first right). Credit: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
