Journal
NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW
Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages 59-69Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwx074
Keywords
thermal conductivity; scanning thermal microscopy; thermoelectric materials; nanoscale heat transfer; thermal imaging
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Funding
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFA0201001]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [11627801, 11472236]
- US National Science Foundation [CBET-1435968]
- State of Washington through the University of Washington Clean Energy Institute
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In the last two decades, a nanostructuring paradigm has been successfully applied in a wide range of thermoelectric materials, resulting in significant reduction in thermal conductivity and superior thermoelectric performance. These advances, however, have been accomplished without directly investigating the local thermoelectric properties, even though local electric current can be mapped with high spatial resolution. In fact, there still lacks an effectivemethod that links the macroscopic thermoelectric performance to the local microstructures and properties. Here, we show that local thermal conductivity can be mapped quantitatively with good accuracy, nanometer resolution and one-to-one correspondence to the microstructure using a three-phase skutterudite as amodel system. Scanning thermalmicroscopy combined with finite element simulations demonstrate close correlation between sample conductivity and probe resistance, enabling us to distinguish thermal conductivities spanning orders of magnitude, yet resolving thermal variation across a phase interface with small contrast. The technique thus provides a powerful tool to correlate local thermal conductivities, microstructures and macroscopic properties for nanostructured materials in general and nanostructured thermoelectrics in particular.
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