Thermal resistance between amorphous silica nanoparticles

FH Meng and M Elsahati and J Liu and RF Richards, JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, 121, 194302 (2017).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4983753

Nanoparticle-based materials have been used as thermal insulation in a variety of macroscale and microscale applications. In this work, we investigate the heat transfer between nanoparticles using non- equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We calculate the total thermal resistance and thermal boundary resistance between adjacent amorphous silica nanoparticles. Numerical results are compared to interparticle resistances determined from experimental measurements of heat transfer across packed silica nanoparticle beds. The thermal resistance between nanoparticles is shown to increase rapidly as the particle contact radius decreases. More significantly, the interparticle resistance depends strongly on the forces between particles, in particular, the presence or absence of chemical bonds between nanoparticles. In addition, the effect of interfacial force strength on thermal resistance increases as the nanoparticle diameter decreases. The simulations results are shown to be in good agreement with experimental results for 20 nm silica nanoparticles. Published by AIP Publishing.

Return to Publications page