Thermal properties of nanowires and nanotubes : modeling and experiments

Nanowires and nanotubes have drawn a great deal of recent attention for such potential applications as lasers, transistors, biosensors, and thermoelectric energy converters. Although the thermal properties of nanowires can differ greatly from their bulk counterparts, the theoretical and experimental understanding of these differences is still limited. Thermal performance is especially important for nanowire thermoelectrics, which are expected to have energy conversion efficiencies far superior to bulk materials. This efficiency increase may lead to a broad range of applications for reliable, solid-state energy conversion, including household refrigeration and waste heat scavenging for power generation. In this thesis, the fundamental thermal properties of nanowires and nanotubes are explored from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. Modeling and experiments on titanium dioxide nanotubes confirm that quantum size effects can cause enhancements in the specific heat at low temperature, while modeling of classical size effects in nanowires and superlattice nanowires shows that the thermal conductivity can be reduced by several orders of magnitude compared to bulk, in agreement with available experimental data.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Dames, Christopher Eric

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gang Chen.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38259

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38259