Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T01:58:16.140Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Theoretical Thermal Conductivity of Periodic Two-Dimensional Nanocomposites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Ronggui Yang
Affiliation:
Mechanical Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.
Gang Chen
Affiliation:
Mechanical Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.
Get access

Abstract

A phonon Boltzmann transport model is established to study the lattice thermal conductivity of nanocomposites with nanowires embedded in a host semiconductor material. Special attention has been paid to cell-cell interaction using periodic boundary conditions. The simulation shows that the temperature profiles in nanocomposites are very different from those in conventional composites, due to ballistic phonon transport at nanoscale. The thermal conductivity of periodic 2-D nanocomposites is a strong function of the size of the embedded wires and the volumetric fraction of the constituent materials. At constant volumetric fraction the smaller the wire diameter, the smaller is the thermal conductivity of periodic two-dimensional nanocomposites. For fixed silicon wire dimension, the lower the atomic percentage of germanium, the lower the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites. The results of this study can be used to direct the development of high efficiency thermoelectric materials.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1 Tritt, T.M., Ed., Semiconductor and Semimetals, 71 (2001).Google Scholar
2 Harman, T.C., Taylor, P.J., Walsh, M.P., and LaForge, B. E., Science 297, 2229 (2002).Google Scholar
3 Venkatasubramanian, R., Silvona, E., Colpitts, T., and O'Quinn, B., Nature, 413, 597 (2001).Google Scholar
4 Hasselman, D.P.H. and Johnson, L.F., J. Compos. Mater. 21, 508 (1987).Google Scholar
5 Benvensite, Y. and Miloh, T., J. Appl. Phys. 69, 1337 (1991).Google Scholar
6 Every, A.G., Tzou, Y., Hasselman, D.P.H., and Raj, R., Acta. Metall. Mater. 40, 123 (1992).Google Scholar
7 Nan, C.W., Birringer, R., Clarke, D.R., and Gleiter, H., J. Appl. Phys. 81, 6692 (1997).Google Scholar
8 Simkin, M.V. and Mahan, G.D., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 927 (2000).Google Scholar
9 Chen, G., Phys. Rev. B 57, 14958 (1998).Google Scholar
10 Yang, B., and Chen, G., Phys. Rev. B, 67, 195311 (2003).Google Scholar
11 Chen, G., et al., Proc. ICT’03 (in press).Google Scholar
12 Joshi, A. A., and Majumdar, A., J. Appl. Phys., 74, 31 (1993).Google Scholar
13 Yang, R.G., Chen, G., Laroche, M., and Taur, Y., Submitted to ASME J. Heat Tans. (2003)Google Scholar
14 Yang, R.G. and Chen, G., to be submitted to Phys. Rev. B (2003).Google Scholar
15 Swartz, E.T. and Pohl, R.O., Rev. Mod. Phys. 61, 605 (1989).Google Scholar
16 Siegel, R., and Howell, J.R., Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, 4th ed (Taylor & Francis, Washington DC, 2001).Google Scholar
17 Modest, M.F., Radiative Heat Transfer, 2nd ed (Academic Press, New York, 2003).Google Scholar