Enhancing solid-liquid interface thermal transport using self-assembled monolayers

The thermal conductance across solid-liquid interfaces is of interest for many applications. Using time-domain thermoreflectance, we measure the thermal conductance across self-assembled monolayers, grown on Au, to ethanol. We systematically study the effect of different functional groups and the alkyl chain length on the thermal conductance. The results show that adding this extra molecular layer can enhance the thermal transport across the solid-liquid interface. While the enhancement is up to 5 times from hexanedithiol, the enhancement from hexanethiol, undecanethiol, and hexadecanethiol is approximately a factor of 2. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.