Low temperature sintering of copper biporous wicks with improved maximum capillary pressure

•Thin copper nanoparticle films were sintered at low temperature on microporous wick.•The film enhances wick׳s capillary pressure; permeability decreases nominally.•These wick materials could enable enhanced performance loop heat pipes.

Copper nanoparticle films were successfully sintered at low temperatures of approximately 280 °C onto copper microporous wick substrates. Scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate the morphology of the nanoporous layer. The permeability and maximum capillary pressure measurements were carried out on the sintered biporous media before and after nanoparticle layer coating. It was found that the nanoparticle film enhanced the capillary pressure of the porous media up to two times although it also affected permeability. These materials have applications in loop heat pipes and miniature loop heat pipes systems, which are envisioned to become mainstream computer cooling technologies.

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