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A multifunctional silicon carbide (6H–SiC) material with efficient wicking and evaporative cooling performances in a temperature range of 23–180 °C is created through hierarchical surface nano/microstructuring by a femtosecond laser. The elaborated hierarchical surface structure is an array of nanotextured microgrooves that includes structural features in a range between about 15 nm and 140 μm, integrating benefits from micro- and nanoscale physics of capillarity and thermodynamics. The spatiotemporal dynamics of both water spreading and temperature field obtained by optical and infrared imaging show the excellent wicking and evaporative cooling functionalities of the created material. The range of applications of the developed multifunctional 6H–SiC material includes the technologies for enhancing power generation efficiency, waste heat recovery, and cooling high-heat-flux Si- and SiC-based electronic devices. The application of the created material in cooling technologies for power generation can result in substantial fuel savings and global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable evaporative energy from atmospheric air is a recently emerged research field that demonstrates the great potential for significant energy savings in the air conditioning of buildings, data/big-data/integrated-big-data centers, agricultural storage facilities, and greenhouses. Here, we develop a method for an essential increase in the harvesting efficiency of renewable air evaporative energy by enhancing the water evaporation rate through the shaping of the air-water interface (AWI) by the menisci formed in superhydrophilic hierarchical surface nano/microstructures. Using this method, we achieve a 10-fold rise in the evaporation rate for the microscale AWI shaping. For the first time, we discover the superevaporation effect that provides an unprecedented 130-fold rise in the evaporation rate at the hierarchical nano/microscale AWI shaping. Furthermore, based on these findings, for the first time, we elaborate a novel material with an engineered AWI for a significant increase in the harvesting of renewable air evaporative energy in the dew point (Maisotsenko cycle) indirect evaporative air conditioning systems whose operation is fundamentally based on utilizing renewable air evaporative energy. The dew point cooling device fabricated using this novel material shows significantly superior cooling performance, validating the substantially enhanced harvesting of the air's evaporative energy. Our findings can essentially advance the emerging field of renewable air evaporative energy and, besides the air conditioning technology, can provide significant efficiency enhancements in water purification/desalination, thermal management, gas turbine power generation, and waste heat recovery technologies. • A method for efficient harvesting renewable air evaporative energy is proposed. • The proposed method is based on the shaping of the air-water interface to enhance evaporation. • A 10-fold rise in the evaporation rate for microscale AWI shaping is achieved. • Superevaporation from nano/microshaped air-water interface was found. • A proof-of-concept dew-point evaporative cooler validates the efficiency of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]