University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Energy Transport Research Lab

Image Gallery

  • Droplet coalescence time-lapse with density gradients

  • FPSI imaging of water vapor condensation beneath a superhydrophobic droplet

  • Dropwise condensation of steam

  • Dropwise condensation induced polymer film blistering

  • Salt scale buildup on a half-coated polished silicon wafer

  • Salt spray corrosion on a coated (top) and uncoated (bottom) Cu sample

  • Fly wing SEM

  • Cicada photograph showing its superhydrophobic wings

  • Metal additive manufacturing of condenser tubing

  • CT scan of a metal additively manufactured microchannel

  • Simulation and image of a polymer AM air jet cooler cooling GaN devices

  • Power converter prototype for CAT loader

  • CAD image of a inverter prototype that can reach 50 kW/L

  • Photograph of the built inverter prototype

  • Photograph of the built inverter prototype

  • Scalable copper oxide (CuO) nanostructure

  • The modes of water vapor condensation

  • Charged jumping droplets from a cooled tube

  • Condensation on superhydrophobic CNTs

  • Heart shaped CuO nanostructure

  • Condensation on silicon nanopillars

  • Long exposure-time images of jumping-droplets

  • Frozen droplet on a nanostructured surface

  • Jumping-droplet electrostatic generator device

  • Kissing silicon nanopillars

  • Metal oxide nanoflower "garden"

  • Water droplet "pearl" on CNT nanograss

  • Water evaporation on Si nanopillars

  • Droplet pinning Si nanopillars

  • Water evaporation on Si nanopillars

  • Zinc oxide nanowires

  • Water droplet placed on a clean CuO surface

  • Water droplet placed on a coated CuO surface

ETRL Gallery

  • ETRL Fall 2014

  • Group Outing at Golden Harbor Restaurant Fall 2014

  • Group Outing at B Won Restaurant Spring 2015

  • 9th Boiling and Condensation Conference - Boulder, Colorado, 2015

  • InterPACK - San Francisco, California, Summer 2015

  • Group BBQ at the Miljkovic residence, Summer 2015

  • BP Invited Talk - London, UK, Fall 2015 - Meeting with John Rose and his wife

  • Kyushu University - Japan, Winter 2016 - Photo with Takata Sensei

  • Kyushu University - Japan, Winter 2016 - Photo with Professor Xing Zhang of Tsinghua University

  • Kyushu University - Japan - Winter 2016 - Photo with student doing ESEM

  • Kyushu University - Japan - Winter 2016 - Photo with Dr. Dani Orejon

  • Group Outing at Sitara Restaurant, Winter 2016

  • Group BBQ at the Miljkovic residence, Spring 2016

  • Nano/Microscale Phase Change Workshop in Trondheim, Norway - Summer 2016

  • Nano/Microscale Phase Change Workshop in Trondheim, Norway - Summer 2016

  • View of Trondheim, Norway - Summer 2016

  • Group photo at ISFV2016 in Tennessee - Summer 2016

  • Hiro receiving a plaque from his colleagues

  • Group outing at Black Dog BBQ - Summer 2016

  • Group outing at Black Dog BBQ - Summer 2016

  • ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference - Washington DC, Summer 2016

  • ETRL Group Photo - Inside - September 2, 2016

  • ETRL Group Photo - Outside - September 2, 2016

  • Group Outing at Sun Singer - October 22, 2016

  • Shreyas Chavan and James Carpenter testing superhydrophobicity

  • Patrick Birbarah and Junho Oh testing jumping droplet cooling of GaN semiconductor

  • Patty Weisensee and Tuanyu Yang measuring droplet distributions during condensation on SLIPS

  • Jesus Sotelo and Kalyan Boyina installing a superhydrophobic evaporator coil inside the vacuum chamber

  • Junho Oh and Alp Gunay measuring the advancing contact angle on a superhydrophobic sample

  • Hyeongyun Cha and Nenad Miljkovic observing water droplet condensation on the optical mocroscope

  • Group Outing at Silver Creek - November 2, 2016

  • Patty Weisensee defends her PhD thesis - November 7, 2016

  • Patty Weisensee defends her PhD thesis - November 7, 2016

  • Gordon Research Conference - January 11, 2017

  • Group Outing at Silver Creek - April 9, 2017

  • Group BBQ at Nenad's home in Urbana - May 19, 2017

  • Group BBQ at Nenad's home in Urbana - May 19, 2017

  • Group BBQ at Nenad's home in Urbana - May 19, 2017

  • Group BBQ at Nenad's home in Urbana - May 19, 2017

  • Group BBQ at Nenad's home in Urbana - May 19, 2017

  • Group BBQ at Nenad's home in Urbana - May 19, 2017

  • ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference - Bellevue, Washington State, Summer 2017

  • Kyushu University in Japan Visit - Dani Orejon and XPS

  • Dinner at fish restaurant courtosey of Takata-sensei's group

  • Visit to Daikin in Osaka, Japan

  • UIUC CERL Team

  • Group photo at ICNMM 2017 in Boston, MA

  • Group photo in Boston at the John Harvard statue in Boston, MA

  • CERL collaboration picture, Champaign

  • CERL collaboration picture, Champaign

  • Group Outing at B-Won Restaurant, Champaign

  • Dinner with the Rose family

  • NAS Arab-American Frontiers Meeting in Morocco

  • NAS Arab-American Frontiers Meeting in Morocco

  • Patrick and John Rose at ICBCHT2018 in Nagasaki, Japan

  • Group Outing at Golden Harbor Restaurant, Champaign

  • Group Outing at Golden Harbor Restaurant, Champaign

  • Group Outing at Golden Harbor Restaurant, Champaign

  • Visit to Serbian water cooled condenser

  • Kyushu visit, Japan

  • Deep working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • Hanyang working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • Longnan working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • Hanyang working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • Tom working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • Jiaqi working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • Kalyan working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • Shreyas working in the ETRL - August 18, 2018.

  • ETRL Group at MNF2018 conference in Atlanta, GA

  • Dinner with the Garimellas, Atlanta, GA

  • Dinner with the Garimellas, Atlanta, GA

  • Dinner with the Garimellas, Atlanta, GA

  • Longnan visit to Daikin in Osaka, Japan

  • Longnan visit to Daikin in Osaka, Japan

  • Longnan visit to Daikin in Osaka, Japan

  • GRC DRL reunion photo

  • GRC DRL reunion photo

  • GRC DRL reunion photo

  • GRC DRL reunion photo

  • GRC In the company of good colleagues

  • GRC ETRL photo

  • GRC Scenery at the conference venue

  • GRC scenery at the conference venue

  • GRC great night time photo - from Hanyang Zhao

  • GRC Scenery at the conference venue

  • GRC Scenery at the conference venue

  • GRC ETRL cheese factory tour

  • GRC Conference banquet

  • GRC Conference banquet - Dani and Takata-sensei

  • GRC Conference banquet

  • Shreyas Chavan PhD Defense

  • Shreyas Chavan PhD Defense

  • Shreyas Chavan PhD Defense

  • Shreyas Chavan PhD Defense

  • Shreyas Chavan PhD Defense

  • Night out with the committee member to celebrate - Dr. Ryan Enright

  • Andrej Lenert and Ryan Enright visit

  • Andrej Lenert and Ryan Enright visit

  • Andrej Lenert and Ryan Enright visit

  • Alp Gunay PhD Defense

  • Alp Gunay PhD Defense

  • Alp Gunay PhD Defense

  • Moonkyung Kim PhD Defense

  • Moonkyung Kim PhD Defense

  • Moonkyung Kim PhD Defense

  • Moonkyung Kim PhD Defense

  • Moonkyung Kim PhD Defense

  • Moonkyung Kim PhD Defense

  • Patrick Birbarah PhD Defense

  • Patrick Birbarah PhD Defense

  • Dinner at home with Brian Fronk

  • ETRL Group Outing - Catered BBQ from Black Dog

  • ICNMM 2019 - Great nature in St. John's

  • ICNMM 2019 - Nithin presenting his flow boiling work

  • ICNMM 2019 - Conference ETRL Group Photo

  • ICNMM 2019 - Conference ETRL Photo with a legend included

  • ICNMM 2019 - Boat cruse on the Atlantic with the group

  • Dr. Allison Mahvi's laast day in the ETRL

  • The pulse deicing gang (minus Shreyas)

  • ETRL BBQ in the park

  • Qiyuan last day in the ETRL

  • Qiyuan last day in the ETRL

  • ACRC Fall Meeting - Hanyang showing his work

  • ACRC Fall Meeting - Nithin showing his work

  • ACRC Fall Meeting - Dr. Deep showing his work

  • ACRC Fall Meeting - Pega and Winston

  • ACRC Fall Meeting - the Modine all star team

  • IMECE 2019 - ETRL conference photo

  • IMECE 2019 - Kazi presenting his work

  • Huan Ma's last day in the ETRL

  • ETRL fall group outing at BWon Korean BBQ

  • ETRL fall group outing at BWon Korean BBQ

  • ACRC at 30 years

  • John Boos visit to campus

  • Condensation Chamber Team

Outreach Gallery

  • Uni High School 2015

  • Uni High School 2015

  • Uni High School 2015

  • Uni High School 2015

  • Uni High School 2015

  • Uni High School 2015

  • GAMES Camp 2015

  • GAMES Camp 2015

  • GAMES Camp 2015

  • GAMES Camp 2015

  • GAMES Camp 2015

  • GAMES Camp 2015

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

  • Elementary School Demonstrations 2016

Video Gallery

Droplet Impact on Elastic Superhydrophobic Surfaces


Description

High speed videos of droplet impact on elastic or flexible superhydrophobic surfaces. The surface elasticity causes droplet 'springboarding' and lower droplet contact times.

Charged Droplets


Description

Nenad discusses his previous work on condensation, nanodroplet formation, and new nanopatterned surfaces that could boost the efficiency of power plants and desalination systems.

Charged Droplets


Description

Droplets falling from a superhydrophobic surface are drawn toward an electrically charged wire, bottom center, demonstrating that they carry an electric charge.

Dynamics of Coalescence-Induced Jumping Water Droplets


Description

This fluid dynamics video shows the different interaction mechanisms of coalescence-induced droplet jumping during condensation on a nanostructured superhydrophobic surface. High speed imaging was used to show jumping behavior on superhydrophobic copper oxide and carbon nanotube surfaces. Videos demonstrating multi-jumping droplets, jumping droplet return to the surface, and droplet-droplet electrostatic repulsions were analyzed. Experiments using external electric fields in conjunction with high speed imaging in a custom built experimental chamber were used to show that all coalescence-induced jumping droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces become positively charged upon leaving the surface, which is detailed in the video.

Jumping water droplets improve power-plant efficiency


Description

The efficiency of most industrial plants depends crucially on water vapor condensing on metal plates or condensers, and how easily the condensed water can fall away allowing for more droplets to form. On a typical, flat-plate condenser, water vapor condenses to form a liquid film on the surface, drastically reducing the condenser's ability to collect more water, and ultimately acting as a barrier to heat transfer.

By creating hydrophobic surfaces, either through chemical treatment or through surface patterning, researchers have been able to prevent this problem by encouraging water droplets to form and fall away. Now, we have taken this process a step further by making surfaces that are patterned at multiple scales.

The energy, released as tiny droplets of water that merge to form larger ones, is enough to propel the droplets upward from the surface. The removal of droplets doesn't depend solely on gravity — droplets don't just fall from the surface — they actually JUMP away from it.