A recent study in Advanced Science reports an innovative, low-cost polymer heat exchanger that could transform how industries manage heat. The device was developed by a Rice University research team led by Daniel J. Preston , assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
Heat exchangers are essential to modern technology. They improve and reduce waste by transferring heat between fluids, enabling safe and effective operation of everyday appliances like computers, cars and refrigerators as well as large-scale systems such as industrial plants and rockets.
Made of metal, current heat exchangers are heavy and bulky, prone to rusting and clogging and costly to buy and maintain. As heat-generating infrastructure grows — from data centers and desalination plants to compact electronics and space technologies — engineers are seeking lighter, more compact and affordable alternatives.
While polymer-based heat exchangers have been explored before, earlier designs were often too complex, expensive or limited in performance to compete with metal systems.
“What makes our heat exchangers unique is not just that they are made of polymers, but the careful design and selection of the system geometry,” said Richard Fontenot, the study’s first author and a doctoral candidate at Rice. “Typically, plastics are terrible at conducting heat. Think of how we can comfortably hold a plastic foam cup of hot coffee but not a metal one. To minimize thermal resistance and allow these polymeric heat exchangers to transfer heat as well as typical metal exchangers, we used a sheet lamination technique to hermetically seal ultrathin polymer sheets.”
These ultrathin sheets of plastic provide 2 to 4 times more cooling capacity per dollar than traditional metal versions, which researchers believe will be a key driver in their adoption for industrial applications. The design is also easy to fabricate, scalable and corrosion resistant. Because the material is transparent, engineers can quickly detect and clear blockages.
One of the most innovative features of this new polymer design is its deployable design. The exchanger can be stored and transported flat — much like a piece of flat-pack furniture — but expands up to 60 times its original size when fluid flows through it. Once the fluid is removed, it collapses back to its original form. This capability could be especially valuable for space missions, where cargo volume is extremely limited, as well as for drones, compact electronics and desalination systems where corrosion and fouling are persistent challenges.
“Until now, polymeric heat exchangers had been considered an interesting engineering novelty but not a practical alternative,” Preston said. “Our sheet-based design not only transfers heat as well as its metal counterparts but also outperforms them in cost and deployability, opening the door to major advances in thermal management.”
Co-authors of the study include Rice doctoral candidate Sofia Urbina as well as alumni and former Rice researchers Loic Duggal ’25 and Barclay Jumet ’26 and former postdoctoral fellow Anoop Rajappan. The research was supported by the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship program, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the National GEM Consortium Fellowship and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Advanced Science
Compliant Polymeric Sheet-Based Heat Exchangers
21-Feb-2026