Enhancing solid-liquid interface thermal transport using self-assembled monolayers

Enhancing solid-liquid interface thermal transport using self-assembled monolayers

Event Date: May 25, 2015
Authors: Z. Tian, A. Marconnet, and G. Chen
Journal: Applied Physics Letters
Paper URL: Link to Full Text
thermal conductance across solid-liquid interfaces
Applied Physics Letters, vol. 106, 211602, 2015. doi:10.1063/1.4921758

The thermal conductance across solid-liquid interfaces is of interest for many applications. Using time-domain thermoreflectance, we measure the thermal conductance across self-assembled monolayers, grown on Au, to ethanol. We systematically study the effect of different functional groups and the alkyl chain length on the thermal conductance. The results show that adding this extra molecular layer can enhance the thermal transport across the solid-liquid interface. While the enhancement is up to 5 times from hexanedithiol, the enhancement from hexanethiol, undecanethiol, and hexadecanethiol is approximately a factor of 2.