Rapid evaporation at the superheat limit of methanol, ethanol, butanol and n-heptane on platinum films supported by low-stress SiN membranes

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer 2016-10, Vol.101, p.707-718
• Main Authors: Ching, Eric J., Thomas Avedisian, C., Cavicchi, Richard C., Chung, Do Hyun, Rah, Kyupaeck J., Carrier, Michael J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boiling; Bubble nucleation; Bubbles; Butanol; Ethanol; Ethyl alcohol; Heating rate; Homogeneous nucleation; Membranes; Methyl alcohol; Nucleation; Platinum; Pulse heating; Superheat limit
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.04.008

•Impulsive joule heating of submerged metal films promote bubble nucleation of organic liquids.•Methanol, ethanol, butanol and heptane were heated at heating rates approaching 108K/s.•Nucleation temperatures match predictions for smallest pulse times and highest heating rates.•The microheater membranes are robust for millions of pulse cycles. The bubble nucleation temperatures of several organic liquids (methanol, ethanol, butanol, n-heptane) on stress-minimized platinum (Pt) films supported by SiN membranes is examined by pulse-heating the membranes for times ranging from 1μs to 10μs. The results show that the nucleation temperatures increase as the heating rates of the Pt films increase. Measured nucleation temperatures approach predicted superheat limits for the smallest pulse times which correspond to heating rates over 108K/s, while nucleation temperatures are significantly lower for the longest pulse times. The microheater membranes were found to be robust for millions of pulse cycles, which suggests their potential in applications for moving fluids on the microscale and for more fundamental studies of phase transitions of metastable liquids.