A hot-wire probe for thermal measurements of nanowires and nanotubes inside a transmission electron microscope

TES Nanoemulsions: A Review of Thermophysical Properties and Their Impact on System Design

Thermal energy storage materials (TES) are considered promising for a large number of applications, including solar energy storage, waste heat recovery, and enhanced building thermal performance. Among these, nanoemulsions have received a huge amount of attention. Despite the many reviews published on nanoemulsions, an insufficient number concentrate on the particularities and requirements of the energy field. Therefore, we aim to provide a review of the measurement, theoretical computation and impact of the physical properties of nanoemulsions, with an integrated perspective on the design of thermal energy storage equipment. Properties such as density, which is integral to the calculation of the volume required for storage; viscosity, which is a decisive factor in pressure loss and for transport equipment power requirements; and thermal conductivity, which determines the heating/cooling rate of the system or the specific heat directly influencing the storage capacity, are thoroughly discussed. A comparative, critical approach to all these interconnected properties in pertinent characteristic groups, in close association with the practical use of TES systems, is included. This work aims to highlight unresolved issues from previous investigations as well as to provide a summary of the numerical simulation and/or application of advanced algorithms for the modeling, optimization, and streamlining of TES systems.

Anisotropic thermal conductivity measurement of organic thin film with bidirectional 3ω method

Organic thin film materials with molecular ordering are gaining attention as they exhibit semiconductor characteristics. When using them for electronics, the thermal management becomes important, where heat dissipation is directional owing to the anisotropic thermal conductivity arising from the molecular ordering. However, it is difficult to evaluate the anisotropy by simultaneously measuring in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivities of the film on a substrate because the film is typically as thin as tens to hundreds of nanometers and its in-plane thermal conductivity is low. Here, we develop a novel bidirectional 3ω system that measures the anisotropic thermal conductivity of thin films by patterning two metal wires with different widths and preparing the films on top and extracting the in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivities using the difference in their sensitivities to the metal-wire width. Using the developed system, the thermal conductivity of spin-coated poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) with thickness of 70 nm was successfully measured. The measured in-plane thermal conductivity of PEDOT:PSS film was as high as 2.9 W m^-1 K^-1 presumably due to the high structural ordering, giving an anisotropy of 10. The calculations of measurement sensitivity to the film thickness and thermal conductivities suggest that the device can be applied to much thinner films by utilizing metal wires with a smaller width.

Anisotropic thermal conductivity measurement using a new Asymmetric-Beam Time-Domain Thermoreflectance (AB-TDTR) method

Anisotropic thermal properties are of both fundamental and practical interests, but remain challenging to characterize using conventional methods. In this work, a new metrology based on asymmetric beam time-domain thermoreflectance (AB-TDTR) is developed to measure three-dimensional anisotropic thermal transport by extending the conventional TDTR technique. Using an elliptical laser beam with controlled elliptical ratio and spot size, the experimental signals can be exploited to be dominantly sensitive to measure thermal conductivity along the cross-plane or any specific in-plane directions. An analytic solution for a multi-layer system is derived for the AB-TDTR signal in response to the periodical pulse, elliptical laser beam, and heating geometry to extract the anisotropic thermal conductivity from experimental measurement. Examples with experimental data are given for various materials with in-plane thermal conductivity from 5 W/m K to 2000 W/m K, including isotropic materials (silicon, boron phosphide, and boron nitride), transversely isotropic materials (graphite, quartz, and sapphire), and transversely anisotropic materials (black phosphorus). Furthermore, a detailed sensitivity analysis is conducted to guide the optimal setting of experimental configurations for different materials. The developed AB-TDTR metrology provides a new approach to accurately measure anisotropic thermal phenomena for rational materials design and thermal applications.

Extension of the T-bridge method for measuring the thermal conductivity of two-dimensional materials

In this paper, the T-bridge method is extended to measure the thermal properties of two-dimensional nanomaterials. We present an analysis of the measureable positions, width, and thermal resistance of two-dimensional materials. For verification purposes, the thermal conductivity of a SiO₂ nanoribbon was measured. To enhance the thermal contact between the nanoribbon and the heater in the setup, the nanoribbon was dipped into either isopropanol or water in order to promote a sticking force. Also, focused ion beam deposition was used to deposit the nanoribbon onto the contact. The thermal conductivities of all three cases were identical, showing that water dipping could be used to enhance the thermal contact. Due to the simple structure of this method and the analysis provided herein, the T-bridge method can be widely used for measuring the thermal conductivity of two-dimensional materials.

A direct differential method for measuring thermal conductivity of thin films

Over the past two decades, significant progress in the thermal metrology for thin films and wires has enabled new understanding of the thermal conductivity of nanostructures. However, a large variation in the measured thermal conductivity of similar nanostructured samples has been observed. In addition to potential differences from sample-to-sample, measurement uncertainty contributes to the observed variation in measured properties. Many now standard micro/nanoscale thermal measurement techniques require extensive calibration of the properties of the substrate and support structures and this calibration contributes to uncertainty. Within this work, we develop a simple, direct differential electrothermal measurement of thermal conductivity of micro/nanoscale sample films by extending conventional steady state electrothermal approaches. Specifically, we leverage a cross-beam measurement structure consisting of a suspended, composite heater beam (metal on silicon) with the sample structure (silicon) extending at a right angle from the center of the heater beam, in a configuration similar to the T-type measurements used for fibers and nanotubes. To accurately resolve the thermal conductivity of the sample, the steady-state Joule heating response of the cross-beam structure is measured. Then, the sample is detached from the heater beam with a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) tool enabling direct characterization of the composite heater beam thermal properties. The differential measurement of the structure before and after FIB cut enables direct extraction of the sample thermal conductivity. The effectiveness of this differential measurement technique is demonstrated by measuring thermal conductivity of a 200 nm silicon layer. Additionally, this new method enables investigation of the accuracy of conventional approaches for extracting sample thermal conductivity with the composite beam structure and conventional comparative approaches. The results highlight the benefits of the direct differential method for accurate measurements with minimal assumptions.

Measuring methods for thermoelectric properties of one-dimensional nanostructural materials

Measuring methods for the Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity of 1D nanostructural materials have been reviewed and structures, principles, merits and shortcomings, as well as examples of each method are discussed in detail.

Dancing the tight rope on the nanoscale--Calibrating a heat flux sensor of a scanning thermal microscope

We report on a precise in situ procedure to calibrate the heat flux sensor of a near-field scanning thermal microscope. This sensitive thermal measurement is based on 1ω modulation technique and utilizes a hot wire method to build an accessible and controllable heat reservoir. This reservoir is coupled thermally by near-field interactions to our probe. Thus, the sensor's conversion relation V(th)(Q(GS)*) can be precisely determined. V(th) is the thermopower generated in the sensor's coaxial thermocouple and Q(GS)* is the thermal flux from reservoir through the sensor. We analyze our method with Gaussian error calculus with an error estimate on all involved quantities. The overall relative uncertainty of the calibration procedure is evaluated to be about 8% for the measured conversion constant, i.e., (2.40 ± 0.19) μV/μW. Furthermore, we determine the sensor's thermal resistance to be about 0.21 K/μW and find the thermal resistance of the near-field mediated coupling at a distance between calibration standard and sensor of about 250 pm to be 53 K/μW.

Thermal boundary resistance between the end of an individual carbon nanotube and a Au surface

The thermal boundary resistance between an individual carbon nanotube and a Au surface was measured using a microfabricated hot-film sensor. We used both closed and open-ended multi-walled carbon nanotubes and obtained thermal boundary resistance values of 0.947-1.22 × 10(7) K W(-1) and 1.43-1.76 × 10(7) K W(-1), respectively. Considering all uncertainties, including the contact area, the thermal boundary conductances per unit area were calculated to be 8.6 × 10(7)-2.2 × 10(8) W m(-2) K(-1) for c-axis orientation and 4.2 × 10(8)-1.2 × 10(9) W m(-2) K(-1) for the a-axis. The trend in these values agrees with the predicted conductance dependence on the interface orientation of anisotropic carbon-based materials. However, the measured thermal boundary conductances are found to be much larger than the reported results.

Fabrication of a nanostructure thermal property measurement platform

Measurements of the electrical and thermal transport properties of one-dimensional nanostructures (e.g. nanotubes and nanowires) are typically obtained without detailed knowledge of the specimen's atomic-scale structure or defects. To address this deficiency, we have developed a microfabricated, chip-based characterization platform that enables both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the atomic structure and defects as well as measurement of the thermal transport properties of individual nanostructures. The platform features a suspended heater line that physically contacts the center of a suspended nanostructure/nanowire that was placed using in situ scanning electron microscope nanomanipulators. Suspension of the nanostructure across a through-hole enables TEM characterization of the atomic and defect structure (dislocations, stacking faults, etc) of the test sample. This paper explains, in detail, the processing steps involved in creating this thermal property measurement platform. As a model study, we report the use of this platform to measure the thermal conductivity and defect structure of a GaN nanowire.

Thermal conductivity and viscosity of self-assembled alcohol/polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluids

Very large thermal conductivity enhancement had been reported earlier in colloidal suspensions of solid nanoparticles (i.e., nanofluids) and more recently also in oil-in-water emulsions. In this study, nanoemulsions of alcohol and polyalphaolefin (PAO) are spontaneously generated by self-assembly, and their thermal conductivity and viscosity are investigated experimentally. Alcohol and PAO have similar thermal conductivity values, so that the abnormal effects, such as particle Brownian motion, on thermal transport could be deducted in these alcohol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids. Small angle neutron-scattering measurement shows that the alcohol droplets are spheres of 0.8-nm radius in these nanoemulsion fluids. Both thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of the fluids are found to increase with alcohol droplet loading, as expected from classical theories. However, the measured conductivity increase is very moderate, e.g., a 2.3% increase for 9 vol%, in these fluids. This suggests that no anomalous enhancement of thermal conductivity is observed in the alcohol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids tested in this study.