The attached paper describes a method in which nanostructured copper (Cu) surface formed by the deposition of Cu nanorods on a Cu substrate.
DOI: 10.1002/smll.200700991
Nanostructured Copper Interfaces for
Enhanced Boiling**
Chen Li,y
Zuankai Wang,y
Pei-I Wang, Yoav Peles,
Nikhil Koratkar,* and G. P. Peterson*
Phase change through boiling is used in a variety of heat-transfer and chemical reaction applications.[1–7] The state of the art in nucleate boiling has focused on increasing the density of bubble nucleation using porous structures and
microchannels[8–12] with characteristic sizes of tens of micrometers.
Traditionally, it is thought that nanoscale surfaces will not improve boiling heat transfer, since the bubble nucleation process is not expected to be enhanced by such small cavities.[13–15] In the experiments reported here, we observed
unexpected enhancements in boiling performance for a nanostructured copper (Cu) surface formed by the deposition of Cu nanorods on a Cu substrate. Moreover, we observed striking differences in the dynamics of bubble nucleation and release from the Cu nanorods, including smaller bubble diameters, higher bubble release frequencies, and an approximately 30-fold increase in the density of active bubble
nucleation sites. It appears that the ability of the Cu surface with nanorods to generate stable nucleation of bubbles at low superheated temperatures results from a synergistic coupling effect between the nanoscale gas cavities (or nanobubbles[16–18]) formed within the nanorod interstices and micrometer-scale defects (voids) that form on the film surface during nanorod deposition. For such a coupled system, the interconnected nanoscale gas cavities stabilize (or feed) bubble nucleation at the microscale defect sites. This is distinct from conventional-scale boiling surfaces, since for the nanostructured surface the bubble nucleation stability is provided by features with orders-of-magnitude smaller scales
First you deposit nanoparticles on your Cu-surface. The material should have a stochiometric sputter-yield lower than Cu. (For geometric reasons, nanoparticles have a higher geometric sputter-yield than flat surfaces.)
Then you bombard the surface vertically with ions, e.g. Ar at 1-5keV.
You will have to check with SPM/SEM how many nanoparticles per area you need, whether you need a rather high or a rather low ion-energy, how long to sputter at minimum to remove the nanoparticles (order of magnitude: a few hours) ...
The low sputter-yield of the nanoparticle will mean that the surface erodes at these spots slower than the Cu-surface. Pillars will form, each with a nanoparticle on top. Eventually the nanoparticle erodes as well and only the Cu-pillars are left.