Paper accepted in Applied Physics Letters

Our paper, “Ultra-low thermal conductivity of ellipsoidal TiO2 nanoparticle films,” was just accepted into Applied Physics Letters.  In this work, we show that the orientational order of ellipsoidal titania nanoparticle films can affect the thermal transport.  In addition, the thermal conductivities of these films are lower than amorphous titania.  This work was performed in collaboration with Professor Eric Furst’s group at University of Delaware and Leslie Phinney and Anne Grillet at Sandia National Laboratories.

Abstract

We report on the thermal conductivity of a series of convectively assembled, anisotropic titania (TiO2) nanoparticle films. The TiO2 films are fabricated by flow coating a suspension of ellipsoidal colloidal nanoparticles, resulting in structured films with tailored orientational order. The thermal conductivities depend on nanoparticle orientation and exhibit thermal conductivities less than amorphous TiO2 films due to inter-nanoparticle boundary scattering. This nanoparticle ordering presents a unique method for manipulating the thermal conductivity of nanocomposites.