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Nanoscale Thermoelectrics pp 93–139Cite as

Thermal Conductivity of Particulate Nanocomposites

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology ((LNNST,volume 16))

Abstract

The modeling of the thermal conductivity of composites made up of metallic and non-metallic micro/nanoparticles embedded in a solid matrix is discussed in detail, at both the dilute and non-dilute limits of particle concentrations. By modifying both the thermal conductivity of the matrix and particles, to take into account the strong scattering of the energy carriers with the surface of the nanoparticles, it is shown that the particle size effect shows up on the thermal conductivity of nanocomposites through: (1) the collision cross-section per unit volume of the particles and, (2) the mean distance that the energy carriers can travel inside the particles. The effect of the electron–phonon interactions within metallic particles shows up through the reduction of the thermal conductivity of these particles with respect to its values obtained under the Fourier law approach. The thermal conductivity of composites with metallic particles depend strongly on (1) the relative size of the particles with respect to the intrinsic coupling length, and (2) the ratio between the electron and phonon thermal conductivities. The obtained results have shown that the size dependence of the composite thermal conductivity appears not only through the interfacial thermal resistance but also by means of the electron–phonon coupling. Furthermore, at the non-dilute limit, the interaction among the particles is taken into account through a crowding factor, which is determined by the effective volume of the particles. The proposed crowding factor model is able to capture accurately the effect of the interactions among the particles for concentrations up to the maximum packing fraction of the particles. The predictions of the obtained analytical models are in good agreement with available experimental and numerical data and they can be applied to guide the design and improve the thermal performance of composite materials.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support for studying thermal and thermoelectric transport in nanostructured materials by AFOSR Thermal Science Program (Grant No. FA9550-11-1-0109), AFOSR STTR programs (PI: Dr. Sayan Naha) and DARPA ACM Program (PI: Dr. Jeff Sharp).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion, UPR CNRS 288, Ecole Centrale Paris, Grande Voie des Vignes, 92295, Châtenay Malabry, France

    Jose Ordonez-Miranda

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Ronggui Yang

  3. Department of Applied Physics, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del I.P.N-Unidad Mérida, Carretera Antigua a Progreso km. 6, A.P. 73 Cordemex, Mérida, Yucatán, 97310, Mexico

    Juan Jose Alvarado-Gil

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  1. Jose Ordonez-Miranda
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  2. Ronggui Yang
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  3. Juan Jose Alvarado-Gil
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Correspondence to Ronggui Yang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center for Semiconductor Integrated Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China

    Xiaodong Wang

  2. Engineering Research Center for Semiconductor Integrated Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China

    Zhiming M. Wang

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Ordonez-Miranda, J., Yang, R., Alvarado-Gil, J.J. (2014). Thermal Conductivity of Particulate Nanocomposites. In: Wang, X., Wang, Z. (eds) Nanoscale Thermoelectrics. Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02012-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02012-9_3

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