Advances in thermal conductivity for energy applications: a review

Abstract

Thermal conductivity is a crucial material property for a diverse range of energy technologies, ranging from thermal management of high power electronics to thermal insulation for building envelopes. This review discusses recent advances in achieving high and low thermal conductivity (k) as relevant for energy applications, from high-k heat spreaders to low-k insulation. We begin with a brief introduction to the physics of heat conduction from both theoretical and computational perspectives. The heart of the review is a survey of recent advances in high- and low-k materials. The discussion of good heat conductors for thermal management includes inorganics and polymers in both bulk and low dimensional forms. For insulators, the discussion covers the effects of chemical composition, crystal structure, and defects and porosity. Promising areas for future research in both fundamental materials science and engineering technologies are noted.

Wigner formulation of thermal transport in solids

“…We conclude by noting that this novel formulation is relevant for several technological applications, as it will potentially allow to predict the ultralow thermal conductivity of, for example, target materials for thermoelectric energy conversion [29,102,[131][132][133][134][135][136][137], porous materials for gas-storage technologies [138,139], materials for thermal barrier coatings [91-94, 98, 135], complex crystals used in high-temperature piezoelectric transducers [140], and extremely anisotropic van der Waals thermal conductors [141] (see also Refs. [142][143][144][145][146][147][148] for recent applications of the present framework to materials science).…”

High-throughput screening of hypothetical metal-organic frameworks for thermal conductivity

“…Primarily, it is their exceptional tunability and high internal surface areas that have made MOFs candidates for such a wide range of applications 26,27 . However, a property that needs consideration in practical applications of MOFs is thermal conductivity k 28 . For instance, in adsorptive gas storage applications, the exothermicity of gas adsorption can generate a significant amount of heat that, if not dissipated rapidly, could unduly raise the temperature and reduce MOF adsorption capacity 29 .…”

Atomistic evidence of hydrodynamic heat transfer in nanowires

“…These thermal transfer models are particularly useful to predict the thermal properties of the nano-objects developed and increasingly used during the last half century [19]. Silicon nanowires (NWs) are a good example.…”