The thermal conductance across solid-liquid interfaces is of interest to many applications, including thermal management in micro-/nano-scale electronics and biological systems. Using time-domain reflectance techniques, we measure the thermal conductance across self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), grown on gold, to water. We systematically study the thermal conductance dependence on temperature, alkane chain length, coverage area and pattern, and the effect of hydrophilic and hydrophobic heads. Throughout our studies, we will provide a comprehensive understanding of the transport mechanisms across the SAM/water interface and help tune the interfacial conductance for practical applications.

This material is based upon work supported as part of the S3TEC, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-FG02-09ER46577