The best nanoparticle size distribution for minimum thermal conductivity

Scientific Reports
Hang Zhang, Austin J Minnich

Abstract

Which sizes of nanoparticles embedded in a crystalline solid yield the lowest thermal conductivity? Nanoparticles have long been demonstrated to reduce the thermal conductivity of crystals by scattering phonons, but most previous works assumed the nanoparticles to have a single size. Here, we use optimization methods to show that the best nanoparticle size distribution to scatter the broad thermal phonon spectrum is not a similarly broad distribution but rather several discrete peaks at well-chosen nanoparticle radii. For SiGe, the best size distribution yields a thermal conductivity below that of amorphous silicon. Further, we demonstrate that a simplified distribution yields nearly the same low thermal conductivity and can be readily fabricated. Our work provides important insights into how to manipulate the full spectrum of phonons and will guide the design of more efficient thermoelectric materials.

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Citations

Jan 5, 2017·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Zhao WangJiaqing He
Sep 17, 2015·Scientific Reports·Hideyuki MizunoJean-Louis Barrat
Dec 19, 2014·Scientific Reports·Benjamin DaviesHala Zreiqat
Feb 28, 2018·Advanced Materials·Fabian A NutzMarkus Retsch
Apr 20, 2019·Science and Technology of Advanced Materials·Takuma Hori, Junichiro Shiomi
Jun 1, 2019·Nanotechnology·Abhinav Malhotra, Martin Maldovan
Jun 21, 2018·Science Advances·Masaki YamawakiJunichiro Shiomi
Jun 18, 2021·Nano-micro Letters·Qiang ZhuJianwei Xu

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Software Mentioned

VASP
Mingo
ShengBTE

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