Aerogel-based Leidenfrost vapor percolator for ultra-fast thermal cooling

The Leidenfrost effect—where liquid droplets levitate on superheated surfaces—hinders efficient heat transfer. Conventional mitigation strategies typically rely on rigid materials with complex surface engineering, but their applicability is limited by stringent weight requirements, especially in aerospace systems where every gram counts. Here, through controlled tuning of the drying stress field and targeted welding of hollow nanofibers, we construct an aerogel-based Leidenfrost vapor percolator featuring directed nano/micro tunnels for efficient vapor evacuation and flow-topology reconstruction. This ultralight (7 mg cm −3 ) permeator robustly suppresses the Leidenfrost effect up to 1000 °C and achieves a high heat flux of 110.43 W cm −2 . Moreover, the permeator delivers a temperature drop of 760 °C under multi-flow injection, corresponding to a density-normalized Leidenfrost temperature reaching 142.9 °C cm 3 mg −1 . This two-order-of-magnitude enhancement over conventional materials highlights the pivotal roles of hierarchical structuring and vapor-channel regulation in overcoming the Leidenfrost barrier.