title: Enhanced and switchable nanoscale thermal conduction due to van der Waals interfaces.
abstract: Understanding thermal transport in nanostructured materials is important for the development of energy conversion applications and the thermal management of microelectronic and optoelectronic devices. Most nanostructures interact through van der Waals interactions, and these interactions typically lead to a reduction in thermal transport. Here, we show that the thermal conductivity of a bundle of boron nanoribbons can be significantly higher than that of a single free-standing nanoribbon. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of the bundle can be switched between the enhanced values and that of a single nanoribbon by wetting the van der Waals interface between the nanoribbons with various solutions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA.
authors.forename: Juekuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Scott W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Waltermire
authors.forename: Xiaoxia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gutu
authors.forename: Youfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yunfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Alfred A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Zinn
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prasher
authors.forename: Terry T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Deyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001896:Boron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000379:methods; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000639:trends*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D012984:Software; D013814:Thermal Conductivity; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D001896:Boron Compounds; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon