Ultrathin flexible heat pipes with Microsorum fortunei structural-like wick for cooling flexible electronic devices

作者：Sun, Yalong; Liang, Fuye; Tang, Heng; Tang, Yong^*; Zhang, Shiwei^*; Chua, Kian Jon^*

来源：International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2023, 202: 123743.

DOI：10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2022.123743

• Flexible heat pipe
• Thermal management
• Microsorum fortunei structural-like wick
• Bending heat transfer performance
• Vapor channel thickness
• Insulating

Ultrathin flexible heat pipes (FHP) with Microsorum fortunei structural-like wicks were fabricated to meet the cooling demands of flexible electronics. The biomimetic wick was fabricated by high-temperature sintering and composed of multi-layer copper mesh and porous micropillars, which corresponded to the veins and spores of Microsorum fortunei leaves, respectively. The aluminum-plastic film was adopted as the casing and endowed the FHPs with insulating capability. FHPs with the thickness of 0.8 mm and 0.67 mm were fabricated by regulating the height of the porous micropillars to form vapor channels with different thicknesses, which reached the maximum thermal conductivity of 1943.5 W/m center dot K and 1449.5 W/m center dot K under heating power of 17.1 W and 8.1 W, respectively. The optimum filling ratio was found to be 100% due to its higher thermal conductivity under lower heating powers. FHPs with Mi-crosorum fortunei structural-like wicks achieved good bending heat transfer performances while incurring thermal conductivity fluctuation to within 5.3% under 0-180 degrees bending angles. The infrared tests high-lighted that the FHPs maintained good heat transfer performance under natural convection conditions. The advantages of simple manufacture coupled with good bending heat transfer performance and insulat-ing made the FHPs with Microsorum fortunei structural-like wick highly suitable for thermal management of flexible electronics.

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