Heat transfer from nanoparticles: a corresponding state analysis

TL;DR

This paper investigates heat transfer from heated nanoparticles in fluids, demonstrating that a simple Lennard-Jones model with a corresponding state approach can effectively predict high heat fluxes and temperature elevations observed experimentally.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified Lennard-Jones based model with a corresponding state approach to accurately describe heat transfer from nanoparticles in different liquids.

Findings

High heat fluxes and temperature elevations are observed experimentally.

The Lennard-Jones model captures essential experimental features.

Strong interface curvature inhibits vapor film formation, enabling high heat fluxes.

Abstract

In this contribution, we study situations in which nanoparticles in a fluid are strongly heated, generating high heat fluxes. This situation is relevant to experiments in which a fluid is locally heated using selective absorption of radiation by solid particles. We first study this situation for different types of molecular interactions, using models for gold particles suspended in octane and in water. As already reported in experiments, very high heat fluxes and temperature elevations (leading eventually to particle destruction) can be observed in such situations. We show that a very simple modeling based on Lennard-Jones interactions captures the essential features of such experiments, and that the results for various liquids can be mapped onto the Lennard-Jones case, provided a physically justified (corresponding state) choice of parameters is made. Physically, the possibility of sustaining very high heat fluxes is related to the strong curvature of the interface that inhibits the formation of an insulating vapor film.