title: Thermal characterization and sensor applications of one-dimensional nanostructures employing microelectromechanical systems.
abstract: We review the recent progress in thermal characterization and sensor applications of one-dimensional nanostructures employing microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices. It was found by thermal measurements that the thermal conductance of a single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) was very close to the ballistic thermal conductance of a 1-nm-diameter SWCNT without signatures of phonon-phonon Umklapp scattering, a high thermoelectric figure of merit can potentially be obtained in bismuth telluride (BixTe1-x) nanowires with an optimized atomic ratio of x, and the thermal conductivity of metal oxide nanobelts was suppressed by increased phonon-boundary scattering. We further suggest that dielectrophoresis and other directed-assembly methods can be used for the large-scale integration of nanowires with MEMS to obtain ultrasensitive, stable, and selective sensor systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering & Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology, Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. lishi@mail.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Choongho
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou