Distillation of a cool liquid onto a warmer surface

We report the condensation of aniline vapour upon a surface which is significantly warmer than the liquid from which the vapour originated and show that this apparently paradoxical behaviour is predictable on the basis of our recent measurements of the Onsager heat of transport at the aniline liquid vapour interface. In the previous experiments which for experimental reasons were restricted to positive temperature gradients we measured the increase in vapour pressure produced by the applied temperature gradient. The present results imply that a negative temperature gradient at the surface produces a similar decrease in the vapour pressure. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.