where R k is the ITR, ∆T is the temperature discontinuity at the interface and J q is the heat flux normal to the plane of the interface. Minimizing the ITR is essential to improve thermal management efficiency in various applications, particularly those involving microor nanoscale components. Nanoscale heat transfer at metal oxide-hydrocarbon interfaces is of high importance for applications including immersion cooling systems for electric vehicle (EV) batteries and oilbased nanofluid coolants. However, the ITR has rarely been quantified for such interfaces either through experiments or molecular simulations. In a recent study, we investigated the ITR between a hematite surface, α-Fe 2 O 3 (0001), and a hydrocarbon fluid, poly-α-olefin (PAO), using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations. Our model was designed to mimic the interface between the steel battery casing and the dielectric fluid inside EV battery immersion cooling systems. The outer oxidation layer of steel will be mostly α-Fe 2 O 3 at ambient temperatures and the (0001) facet is the most thermodynamically stable. The α-Fe 2 O 3 (0001)/PAO interface is also important for understanding the thermal properties of oil-based iron oxide nanofluids. We evaluated various solid-liquid Lennard-Jones interaction potentials, which gave a wide range of ITR values (R k = 4-21 K m 2 GW -1 ). Stronger interfacial interactions gave reduced ITR and increased the fluid density close to the surface. To identify the most accurate solid-liquid interaction potential for our system, we compared the work of adhesion determined using the dry-surface method to that calculated from the experimental contact angle of PAO4 on steel. Here, the 4 refers to the kinematic viscosity of PAO in cSt at 100 • C. The comparison revealed that the existing hematite-hydrocarbon potentials overestimated the work of adhesion from experiments. When the strength of the solid-liquid potential was further reduced to match the experimental work of adhesion, the ITR increased substantially (R k = 33 K m 2 GW -1 ). The observed discrepancy between the experimental and simulation work of adhesion using state-of-theart solid-liquid interatomic potentials suggests that the metal oxide/hydrocarbon interface modeled in the simulation differs from the experimental one. In our previous study, 10 a dry hematite surface was assumed to be directly in contact with the PAO4 fluid. However, in experimental systems, thin water films are known to form on the surface of metal oxides when the surfaces are exposed to air. Adsorbed water molecules can also partially dissociate, forming covalently bonded hydroxyl groups on the oxide surface. Anhydrous α-Fe 2 O 3 (0001) is hydrophobic, but surface hydroxylation makes the surface hydrophilic due to surface-water hydrogen bond interactions. Ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies revealed surface hydroxylation on the α-Fe 2 O 3 (0001) surface at very low relative humidity (RH) ∼ 10 -7 % at 295 K. Full surface hydroxylation occurs at RH values of around 5%. In this study, we are targeting these experimental conditions, corresponding to full surface hydroxylation. At higher humidities, the onset of water adsorption was observed, with the coverage reaching 1 water monolayer (ML) thickness (10 molecules nm -2 ) at 15% RH, increasing to 1.5 ML at 34% RH. At very high humidity (∼ 95% RH), hematite nanoparticles can stabilize water nanofilms of up to 4-5 ML at 298 K. The hydrophobicity of hematite can be restored by heating the hydroxylated surface to 60 • C, which is sufficient to the remove the surface hydroxyls and surface-bound water layers. The wettability of hydrocarbons or other non-polar fluids on oxide surfaces, such as silica, alumina, 23 quartz, sapphire, and mica, 25 can be affected by thin interfacial water layers. Depending on the relative hydrophilicity/oleophilicity of the surface and the temperature, interfacial water droplets or films can be formed. The interfacial water molecules disrupt the hydrocarbon-surface interactions, making the surface more oleophobic than the dry surface. The effect of thin water films on the solid-liquid work of adhesion, W sl , can be understood by combining Young's equation with the Young-Dupré equation to obtain W sl in terms of the contact angle, θ, and the liquid-vapour surface tension, γ lv . 27