Today's Tech News: Notable or Not?

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-hybrid-surface-combines-hydrophobic-nanowires.html#google_vignette "guides water droplets off surface, preventing accumulation hamperiding heat transfer... surface sustains dropwise condensation for high heat transfer/ controlled filmwise condensation in confined regions to guide drainage, enabling stablity across a wide temperature range... surface with narrowest microchannels (named N100) achieved the best performance... stable and high heat transfer coefficient of 38.3 kW/m2·K at a subcooling of 16 K—216% higher... heat exchangers, air conditioners, desalination units." Related: Tapping a new toolbox, engineers buck tradition in high-performing heat exchanger https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-toolbox-buck-tradition-high-exchanger.html From brine to fresh: bio-inspired solar evaporator achieves zero liquid discharge https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1086462 MIT Scientists Unleash High-Flow Solar Desalinator Flooding Communities With Ga...

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-04-additively-exchanger-traditional.html "precise 3D shapes overcome manufacturing limitations, optimizing: heat transfer rate, work needed to achieve transfer, heat exchanger size... links large and small passages promoting high heat transfer/ easy fluid motion, allows unconventional fluid mixing/ routing... 2-phase heat exchanger, refrigerant comes in as vapor, cools, leaves as liquid, transferring its heat to cooling water also flowing through heat exchanger... 30% to 50% better for same power... increased volumetric/ gravimetric power density... mobile: cars, ships, aircraft" Related: Optimized 3D printed heat exchanger more effective and achieved a 27% higher power density https://engineering.wisc.edu/news/tapping-a-new-toolbox-engineers-buck-tradition-in-new-high-performing-heat-exchanger/ Additive manufacturing and AI could revolutionize production of custom submarine, aircraft components https://techxplore.com/news/2025-10-additive-ai-...

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1079359 "overcomes low thermal conductivity causing overheating... incorporates highly thermally conductive fillers: metals, ceramics, diamond/ graphite oxide... perfect fillers on their own 5X more thermally conductive than imperfect ones, but polymers with graphite oxide fillers containing defects 160% better due to enhanced vibrational couplings between polymers/ defective fillers at polymer/filler interfaces... high-performance microchips, soft robotics: cooler/ more efficient through improved heat dissipation" Related: Plastics with low thermal conductivity have aerospace/ energy-efficient building applications https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1133044

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1079126 "viscoelastic liquid/ elastic suppressing turbulence in simple flows (straight pipes/ channels), for reduced wall friction enhancing energy efficiency... exhibit relaxation time... closed-circuit water loop with 2D channel (20 mm height), 1:2 backward-facing step expansion ratio... turbulent eddies produce kinetic energy as flow attempts equilibrium, which relaxation time interacts with, leading to inertia-viscoelastic meandering motion... adjusting for high diffusivity state boosts heat transfer efficiency/ fluid mixing" Related: Tree-like, branch shaped thin-films release heat at least 3X better than today’s best methods https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1116390 Microscale roughness breakthrough defies 80 years of fluid dynamics https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1137092

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1070603 "scalable, enhances liquid transport properties... cost-effective vinyl masking (produces surfaces with high-resolution wettability contrast, improved phase-change heat transfer) lacquer resin, physical/ chemical surface treatments create patterned aluminum surfaces... improved droplet shedding during condensation... wettability behaviors from superhydrophobic to hydrophilic... fine-tunes condensation heat transfer... intricate patterns on larger surfaces... industrial applications, data servers,condensers, heat exchangers"

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-faster-diamonds.html "thin, flexible synthetic diamond nanomembranes thermally conductive reducing heat up to 10X (4 - 5X that of copper) helping improve performance and service life of EV's with charging speeds 5X higher; also cooling high power density electronic components  of processors, semiconductor lasers, PV, memory... replace insulating intermediate layer transferring heat to copper... polycrystalline diamond nanomembrane grown on silicon wafer, detached, heated at a 80°C enabling attaching to component" Related: Synthetic diamonds may have just gotten way easier to make (in 3 hours) https://www.freethink.com/science/synthetic-diamonds Korean scientists develop superfast method for producing diamonds (in 15 minutes) https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/business-tech/korean-scientists-develop-superfast-method-for-producing-diamonds/article68218385.ece

https://actu.epfl.ch/news/using-heat-from-underground-parking-lots-to-warm-a/ "able to supply up to a third of the energy needed to heat the 60-odd apartments... consists of ten blue-and-white panels measuring 1.3m x 0.7m and made of a metal... only catch is that the concrete walls on which the panels are installed must be in direct contact with the soil so that the panels can capture the geothermal energy... A heat pump then circulates this energy throughout the building above, providing a constant supply all year long... Also useful for train and subway stations and tunnels" Related: There's an enormous geothermal pool under the Latrobe Valley that can provide cheap, clean energy https://techxplore.com/news/2021-12-enormous-geothermal-pool-latrobe-valley.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter A renewable energy-based bi-directional heat trade system https://techxplore.com/news/2023-03-renewable-energy-based-bi-directional.html

https://mechse.illinois.edu/news/41505 “We designed, fabricated and tested an optimized tube-in-tube heat exchanger... has about 20 times higher volumetric power density than a current state-of-the-art... compact and efficient heat exchangers are increasing in demand, particularly in industries where heat exchanger size and mass significantly impacts performance, range and costs” Related: 3D-printed heat exchanger 'more efficient' than conventional designs https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-3d-printed-exchanger-efficient-conventional.html Researchers enhance energy optimization web tool with hybrid geothermal heat exchange technology https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-energy-optimization-web-tool-hybrid.html Faster topology optimization: An emerging industrial design technique gets a speed boost https://techxplore.com/news/2025-07-faster-topology-optimization-emerging-industrial.html 3D printed parts now match digital designs more closely with new modeling technique https://t...