Copper foam is widely used in industrial catalysis, flow boiling, and latent heat storage systems. It is expected that a multi-level topology copper foam with micro/nanostructures can further enhance performance. In this study, an electrochemically patterned copper foam with micro/nanostructures was fabricated and used to reduce supercooling in water-based cool storage phase-change materials. By controlling the reaction time (e.g., 195 s, 255 s, and 300 s), the pattern on the copper foam skeleton appeared as granular, dendritic, and coral-like structures, respectively. Compared with a blank group with supercooling of 11 °C during the solidification process, the unmodified copper foam (CF#0s) can reduce it to 7.7 °C. Electrodeposition-patterned copper foam with micro/nanostructures can further reduce supercooling. The average supercooling degree for CF#195s, CF#255s, and CF#300s was further reduced to 5.6 °C, 4.8 °C, and 4.6 °C, respectively. Among them, CF#300s reduced the supercooling and delay time by 60%. This occurred because the micro-nanostructure on the skeleton of copper foam provides abundant nucleation sites for the solidification of water, and surface roughness increases the nucleation rate.
Role of Ethylene in Opening and Senescence of Gladiolus sp. Flowers
