| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
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Innovations in Energy Materials: Unveiling Future Possibilities of Computational Modelling and Atomically Controlled Experiments
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| Presentation Title |
Local Thermal Conductivity Imaging and Modelling to Guide Microstructure Engineering in Energy Materials |
| Author(s) |
Eleonora Isotta, Christina Scheu, G. Jeffrey Snyder, Oluwaseyi Balogun |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Eleonora Isotta |
| Abstract Scope |
Engineering microstructural defects offers superior control over transport properties, critically affecting the performance of energy materials. Despite the relevance, we lack a clear understanding of how individual microstructures modulate microscale transport owing to the scarcity of local investigations.
In this work, we illustrate recent efforts in developing structure-property relations for individual microstructural defects based on microscale thermal conductivity imaging. Experimental observations in thermoelectric SnTe and photovoltaic silicon reveal a thermal conductivity suppression in the vicinity of grain boundaries, localized within a few microns. Furthermore, not all boundaries behave the same: misorientation angle, lattice symmetry, interface roughness and morphology are found to strongly correlate with the effective thermal boundary resistance. Finally, semi-empirical models of the thermal conductivity profile around a boundary are developed, based on mean free path suppression functions.
This advancement can improve understanding of carrier-defect interactions, enabling the rational engineering of microstructures for superior performance in energy and electronics. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Characterization, Energy Conversion and Storage, Thin Films and Interfaces |