Active Research Programs
Interliant is currently advancing early-stage research programs that apply engineered interfaces and interfacial physics to distinct water and thermal-management challenges.
Mobile Fog-Harvesting Harp
Fog harvesting offers access to atmospheric water in regions where liquid water is scarce, but existing collectors are limited by low-wind performance, droplet retention, and re-entrainment.
The Mobile Fog-Harvesting Harp investigates an interface-enabled fog-collection mechanism that integrates aerodynamic conditioning of fog-laden airflow with slippery hydrophilic collector surfaces. These engineered interfaces promote dense droplet nucleation while enabling rapid shedding with minimal pinning, reducing retained water and re-entrainment relative to conventional wire or mesh collectors.
The research evaluates whether combining controlled airflow interaction with low-hysteresis, surface-engineered drainage can deliver measurable improvements in net water yield per frontal area, particularly under low-wind fog conditions where existing collectors are most limited.
Current focus: feasibility-scale modeling, benchtop fog testing, and durability evaluation of surface-engineered wire arrays.
PhaseJump™ Micro Cooler
As power densities in electronics continue to rise, passive thermal-management technologies are increasingly constrained by capillary limits, orientation sensitivity, and slow liquid return.
PhaseJump™ explores an interface-driven thermal-management mechanism in which condensation is transformed into a controlled droplet-generation and ejection process. The concept builds on prior advances in surface-engineered droplet coalescence and ballistic ejection, extending these principles into compact, sealed device architectures suitable for micro-scale thermal management.
Engineered condensation interfaces are used to control where droplets nucleate, grow, merge, and eject, enabling rapid liquid recycling without pumps, wicks, or gravity dependence. By replacing capillary-limited condensate return with surface-mediated droplet transport, PhaseJump™ aims to establish a new pathway for passive, orientation-independent hotspot cooling.
Current focus: fabrication and experimental validation of condensation-surface architectures at feasibility scale.