Nadeem, Talha Bin, Imran, Muhammad, Tandis, Emad and Arshad, Adeel (2026). Surface engineering and nanomaterials for sustainable indirect evaporative cooling systems. npj Thermal Science and Engineering, 1 ,
Abstract
The rising demand for energy-efficient cooling has driven advancements in Indirect Evaporative Cooling (IEC) systems. This review explores nanomaterials and surface enhancements to improve thermal efficiency, corrosion resistance, and anti-fouling properties. Nanomaterials can boost COP by 16–43% and enable up to 36.1% energy savings. However, scalability and stability challenges remain. Emerging trends like MOFs and additive manufacturing offer promising solutions, guiding future research toward large-scale, sustainable IEC applications.
| Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44435-025-00001-2 |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Engineering and Technology > Mechanical, Biomedical & Design College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) College of Engineering & Physical Sciences College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Aston Fluids Group College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Engineering and Technology Aston University (General) |
| Funding Information: | The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom for funding the doctoral research associated with this work. The technical and administrative assistance provided by the academic and research staff at Aston |
| Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2026 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Publication ISSN: | 3059-3301 |
| Data Access Statement: | No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study. |
| Last Modified: | 29 Jan 2026 08:03 |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Jan 2026 10:17 |
| Full Text Link: | |
| Related URLs: |
https://www.nat ... 435-025-00001-2
(Publisher URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Review article |
| Published Date: | 2026-01-22 |
| Accepted Date: | 2025-04-17 |
| Authors: |
Nadeem, Talha Bin
Imran, Muhammad ( 
0000-0002-3057-1301)
Tandis, Emad (
0000-0002-3352-0171)
Arshad, Adeel (
0000-0002-2727-2431)
|
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