CRYOCOOLER CONTAINING ADDITIVELY-MANUFACTURED HEAT EXCHANGER

摘要

An apparatus includes a heat exchanger (112, 212) configured to transfer heat to a fluid and to absorb heat from the fluid as the fluid flows between a warm end (106) and a cold end (108) of a cryocooler (100). The heat exchanger includes at least one section (118, 218) having a substrate (302) of at least one allotropic form of carbon and a layer (304) of nanoparticles on or over the substrate. The heat exchanger could include multiple sections (118, 218), and each section could include one of multiple substrates (302) and one of multiple layers (304) of nanoparticles. The heat exchanger can further include pores (602) through the multiple sections of the heat exchanger, where the pores are configured to allow the fluid to flow through the heat exchanger and to contact the substrates and the layers of nanoparticles. The nanoparticles could include at least one lanthanide element or alloy, and the substrate could include carbon nanotubes (402) or graphene (500).