Interfacial phenomena and ebullient dynamics in saturated nucleate pool boiling of aqueous solutions of three surfactants that have different molecular weight and ionic nature are experimentally investigated. The additive molecular mobility at interfaces manifests in a dynamic surface tension behavior (surfactant adsorption-desorption at the liquid-vapor interface), and varying surface wetting (contact angle) with concentration (surfactant physisorption at the solid-liquid interface). This tends to change, enhance, and control the boiling behavior significantly, and an optimum heat transfer enhancement is obtained in solutions at or near the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant. Furthermore, wettability (contact angle) is observed to be a function of the molecular makeup of the reagent, and shows distinct regions of change along the adsorption isotherm that are associated with the aggregation mode of adsorbed ions at the solid-water interface. This distinguishably alters the ebullience from not only that in pure water, but also between pre- and post-CMC solutions. Increased wetting tends to suppress nucleation and bubble growth, thereby weakening the boiling process.
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