Energy Transport in Small-Sized Systems

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 2532

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Interests: nanoscale thermal transport; atomistic simulations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Physics and Materials Science, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Interests: characterization of nanomaterials; heat conduction in small sizes

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Guest Editor
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: near-field radiative heat transfer; thermal conduction at micro- and nanoscale; electromagnetic flow and heat transfer

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Guest Editor
Laboratory for Integrated Micro and Mechatronic Systems, CNRS-IIS UMI 2820, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Interests: heat transfer; infrared spectroscopy; thermal physics; condensed matter physics; molecular dynamics; phonon transport
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world's demand for energy is causing a dramatic escalation of social and political unrest. With the development of modern civilizations, the expense of energy has increased progressively, and the energy crisis has become a global issue. It goes without saying that sustainable energy is one of the most pressing problems facing modern society, with materials at the heart of its solutions. Be it high-temperature materials for efficient combustion, nanostructures for high-power density batteries, interface materials for heat dissipation, or metastructures for light harvesting, breakthroughs in energy transport and conversion have relied on breakthroughs in materials research.

With the development of modern technology, the size of many devices has reached the nanoscale. Different from that in conventional, large-sized devices, energy transport in such small devices is much more complicated.

From the atomistic point of view, size reduction will yield different bonding environments due to a larger surface-to-volume ratio. Consequently, the properties of corresponding materials will be changed, which can be beneficial for some applications while introducing challenges to others. To maximize the performance of small-sized devices, a deeper understanding of energy transport is required. To this end, we are calling for papers addressing energy transport efficiency in small-sized systems on the following topics:

  • Materials engineering involving nanosized elements;
  • Fluids in interaction with nanocomposites;
  • Far-field and near-field radiation;
  • Surface phonon-polaritons;
  • Thermoelectric materials;
  • Thermal interface materials;
  • Thermal metamaterials;
  • Thermal logic devices;
  • Surfaces, interfaces, and corresponding structures;
  • Size effect on thermal transport;
  • High-entropy alloys;
  • Amorphous systems;
  • Thermal barrier coatings.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Shiyun Xiong
Dr. Yajuan Cheng
Prof. Dr. Hongliang Yi
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Volz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • thermal transport
  • near-field radiation
  • surface phonon polariton
  • thermoelectrics
  • nanodevices

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3278 KiB  
Article
Photothermal and Catalytic Performance of Multifunctional Cu-Fe Bimetallic Prussian Blue Nanocubes with the Assistance of Near-Infrared Radiation
by Bairui Qi, Qiang Xu, Yunxuan Cao and Zhu Xiao
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(13), 1897; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13131897 - 21 Jun 2023
Viewed by 978
Abstract
Copper and iron are the basic metal elements that have attracted much attention in industry. Prussian blue (PB) is a significant class of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs); however, the lack of such linkages between the structure and properties, as well as properties differences, limits [...] Read more.
Copper and iron are the basic metal elements that have attracted much attention in industry. Prussian blue (PB) is a significant class of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs); however, the lack of such linkages between the structure and properties, as well as properties differences, limits their potential applications. In this paper, the Cu-based Prussian blue nanocubes with and without Fe doping were synthesized. With the increasing reaction time, the morphology of the Cu-based Prussian blue nanocubes without Fe doping (PB:Cu NCs) changes from cuboidal to circular, and finally grows back to cuboidal. However, Cu-based Prussian blue nanocubes with Fe doping (PB: CuFe NCs) grow directly from the cube and eventually collapse. The nanocubes show a notable red shift with the tunable spectra from 400 nm to 700 nm. Compared with PB: Cu NCs, the PB: CuFe NCs have higher temperature rise under 808 nm irradiation and better photothermal efficacy. The catalytic efficiency of PB: CuFe NCs changes with the pH and reaches its maximum value of 1.021 mM with a pH of 5.5. The enhanced catalytic reaction by the near-infrared radiation plasmonic photothermal effect is also confirmed. This work highlights the potential of the developed PB: Cu and PB: CuFe NCs for photothermal-enhanced co-catalysis nanomaterials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transport in Small-Sized Systems)
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10 pages, 2574 KiB  
Article
Wide-Temperature Tunable Phonon Thermal Switch Based on Ferroelectric Domain Walls of Tetragonal KTN Single Crystal
by Shaodong Zhang, Shuangru Li, Lei Wei, Huadi Zhang, Xuping Wang, Bing Liu, Yuanyuan Zhang, Rui Zhang and Chengcheng Qiu
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(3), 376; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13030376 - 17 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1350
Abstract
Ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) of perovskite oxide materials, which can be written and erased by an external electric field, offer the possibility to dynamically manipulate phonon scattering and thermal flux behavior. Different from previous ferroelectric materials, such as BaTiO3, PbTiO3 [...] Read more.
Ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) of perovskite oxide materials, which can be written and erased by an external electric field, offer the possibility to dynamically manipulate phonon scattering and thermal flux behavior. Different from previous ferroelectric materials, such as BaTiO3, PbTiO3, etc., with an immutable and low Curie temperature. The Curie temperature of perovskite oxide KTa1−xNbxO3 (KTN) crystal can be tuned by altering the Ta/Nb ratio. In this work, the ferroelectric KTa0.6Nb0.4O3 (KTN) single crystal is obtained by the Czochralski method. To understand the role of ferroelectric domains in thermal transport behavior, we perform a nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) calculation on monodomain and 90° DWs of KTN at room temperature. The calculated thermal conductivity of monodomain KTN is 9.84 W/(m·k), consistent with experimental results of 8.96 W/(m·k), and distinctly decreased with the number of DWs indicating the outstanding performance of the thermal switch. We further evaluate the thermal boundary resistance (TBR) of KTN DWs. An interfacial thermal resistance value of 2.29 × 10−9 K·m2/W and a large thermal switch ratio of 4.76 was obtained for a single DW of KTN. Our study shows that the ferroelectric KTN can provide great potential for the application of thermal switch at room temperature and over a broad temperature range. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transport in Small-Sized Systems)
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11 pages, 1817 KiB  
Article
Enhancing the Coherent Phonon Transport in SiGe Nanowires with Dense Si/Ge Interfaces
by Yajuan Cheng, Shiyun Xiong and Tao Zhang
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(24), 4373; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12244373 - 8 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1182
Abstract
The manipulation of phonon transport with coherent waves in solids is of fundamental interest and useful for thermal conductivity design. Based on equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and lattice dynamics calculations, the thermal transport in SiGe superlattice nanowires with a tuned Si/Ge interface density [...] Read more.
The manipulation of phonon transport with coherent waves in solids is of fundamental interest and useful for thermal conductivity design. Based on equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and lattice dynamics calculations, the thermal transport in SiGe superlattice nanowires with a tuned Si/Ge interface density was investigated by using the core-shell and phononic structures as the primary stacking layers. It was found that the thermal conductivity decreased with the increase of superlattice period lengths (Lp) when Lp was larger than 4 nm. This is because introducing additional Si/Ge interfaces can enhance phonon scattering. However, when Lp<4 nm, the increased interface density could promote heat transfer. Phonon density-of-state analysis demonstrates that new modes between 10 and 14 THz are formed in structures with dense Si/Ge interfaces, which is a signature of coherent phonon transport as those modes do not belong to bulk Si or Ge. The density of the newly generated modes increases with the increase of interface density, leading to an enhanced coherent transport. Besides, with the increase of interface density, the energy distribution of the newly generated modes becomes more balanced on Si and Ge atoms, which also facilitates heat transfer. Our current work is not only helpful for understanding coherent phonon transport but also beneficial for the design of new materials with tunable thermal conductivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transport in Small-Sized Systems)
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