Active heat transfer enhancement by interface-localized liquid dielectrophoresis using interdigitated electrodes

Abstract

We introduced an active heat transfer control between graphene and water using interdigitated electrodes (IDEs). Oppositely charged co-planer electrodes embedded on a graphene surface created a non-uniform electric field. Resulted interface localized liquid dielectrophoresis (LDEP) perpendicular to surface enhanced the water/graphene coupling and decreased interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) substantially. We correlated the theoretical calculations of average electric field strength near surface with Kapitza values measured at corresponding electrode configurations. We obtained a unified linear variation of Kapitza as a function of average electric strength independent of electrode size and charge. By increasing the electric field strength, we measured up to 96% decrease of Kapitza near electrodes. Since the IDEs generated electric field was only interface localized, it required lower electrode charges than any parallel-plate capacitor systems. We showed that ITR remains effective in heat transfer behavior for systems as big as 100nm such that interface localized electric field can at least increase the heat removal 50% by eliminating the ITR from both graphene/water interfaces of a channel system. By converting hydrophobic few-layer graphene to super-hydrophilic condition with ultra-low Kapitza, current results are important for graphene-based materials considered for the solution of the thermal management problem of current and next generation micro/nano-electronics.