(84b) Effect of Porosity on Thermal Transport in Nanoscale Systems

Porous materials lie at the heart of numerous catalytic and transport processes, and with the advances in nanotechnology, controlled porous structures with dimensions of few hundred nanometers can be routinely fabricated in both bottom-up and top-down growth strategies. The inclusion of low conductivity porous phase in materials can significantly alter their thermal properties and arising transport phenomena. In this work, we develop and use computational tools to study the role of porosity on thermal transport in nanoporous systems. Our developed mathematical model is used to calculate the dynamics of thermal vibrations to obtain systematic insights into their interaction with nanopores. We study the role of pore structure, pore dimensions, and periodicity on effective thermal conductivity in semiconductor nanostructures. We also present strategies to further control thermal transport in these nanoporous materials using coherent interactions between thermal vibrations. The talk aims to advance the fundamental understanding of thermal transport phenomena in nanoscale porous systems using computational tools with potential applications in energy applications such as thermoelectrics, as well as chemical catalysis and nano-phononics.