MSCA-COFUND-CLEAR-Doc-PhD Position #CD22-32: Characterization of thermal and energy exchanges at interfaces of diamond-based materials

I. Context:

Climate change is undoubtedly one of the major challenges in the history of humanity and the challenge of the XXIst century and is the consequence of a massive use of carbon-based fossil fuels for the past two centuries. The energy sector is therefore at the heart of this problem and a big part of the solution. On one hand, roughly 90% of the global energy use involves the generation of manipulation of heat. On the other hand, energy efficiency in general, and energy recovery in particular as one way to increase energy efficiency, as well as the use of low carbon energy, are two key routes to decarbonization. Consequently, thermal energy recovery and low carbon heat are indispensable to reach decarbonization goals. For this purpose, several technologies exist for thermal energy harvesting such as thermoelectrics, solar thermal or thermo-photovoltaics. Many of these technologies still suffer poor efficiencies and their improvement requires the design and fabrication of new materials with optimized thermal and energy transport properties for each application to go beyond what can be achieved using conventional natural materials. Such new materials are called meta-materials and can be obtained by materials engineering at the micro and nano scales to take advantage of the huge advances of micro and nano-fabrication techniques over the past few decades. The management of energy and heat at the nanometric scale is therefore of paramount importance to master the design, fabrication, and use of such materials for decarbonization goals. Appropriate experimental techniques are also essential to measure, characterize and understand their thermophysical properties as well as their couplings.

II. Objective:

In this project, we are interested in the thermal characterization of diamond-based materials such as thin diamond films or nanocomposites based on diamond inclusions. Diamond is chosen because it has excellent physical properties such as hardness, optical transparency, thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, electrical insulation, chemical corrosivity and biocompatibility.1–3 A recent study4 demonstrates experimentally that thermal transport through diamond membranes or diamond-silicon interfaces is tunable. The authors observe that the diamond-silicon thermal boundary resistance (TBR) is the lowest measured to date (compared to other studies3) and that the thermal conductivity of diamond increases due to strong texturing of the diamond seeds near the interface. On the other hand, another study5 shows that the surface functionalization of diamond nano-inclusions is very versatile and that the possibility of modifying them as nano-biomaterials seems promising for various applications in the fields of coating materials, metal plating and polymer nanocomposites. Thus, various electron transport mechanisms and percolation phenomena are observed in diamond-like nanocomposites (DLN), and DLN properties and structure are preserved in both metallic and dielectric states.6 In addition, newer types of highly conductive nano-inclusions, which are a mixture of three-dimensional (3D) diamond foam (DF) and chromium-modified copper foam, increase the thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCM)7 offered for thermal grinding applications.8 Hence, three scientific and technological objectives must be addressed to address this issue:

1) Fabrication of new types of metamaterials based on diamond (thin diamond films or nanocomposites based on diamond inclusions) which will mainly be carried out in the clean rooms of the University Gustave Eiffel/ESIEE Paris.

2) Design and implementation of new experimental techniques for the characterization of the fabricated meta-materials. For thermal applications (rectification, cooling, or other),9,10 it will be interesting to study the temperature dependence of the different thermophysical properties of the considered materials. The study of their thermal and optical properties will be based on the implementation of a measurement of thermal conductivity/conductance via time domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) alongside the 3-omega method; and a design of an experimental bench for the measurement of emissivity by spectroscopy and microscopy, FTIR.

3) The experimental results will then be combined with numerical simulations (e.g., by finite elements) to extract the expected properties and to understand and explore their theoretical significance in heat conduction/radiation. The objective will be to provide solutions to improve heat transport at interfaces and thus control heat transfer (conductive and radiative).

III. Skills sought:

The student must be a physicist with research master’s degree (or equivalent) and having knowledge of materials science, optics. thermodynamics and heat/energy transfers. Knowledge in signal processing and Matlab language as well as simulation experience within COMSOL Multiphysics is a plus. He must be motivated to carry out theoretical and experimental work. A good command in French and in English for writing scientific reports and articles is required, as well as good communication skills in order to work with international teams and collaborators.

IV. References

1 Y. Yamamoto, T. Imai, K. Tanabe, T. Tsuno, Y. Kumazawa, and N. Fujimori, Diam. Relat. Mater. 6, 1057 (1997).

2 A. Grill, Thin Solid Films 355–356, 189 (1999).

3 P.E. Hopkins, ISRN Mech. Eng. 2013, 19 (2013).

4 Z. Cheng, T. Bai, J. Shi, T. Feng, Y. Wang, M. Mecklenburg, C. Li, K.D. Hobart, T.I. Feygelson, M.J. Tadjer, B.B. Pate, B.M. Foley, L. Yates, S.T. Pantelides, B.A. Cola, M. Goorsky, and S. Graham, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 18517 (2019).

5 A.Y. Jee and M. Lee, Curr. Appl. Phys. 9, 144 (2009).

6 V.F. Dorfman, Thin Solid Films 212, 267 (1992).

7 L. Zhang, K. Zhou, Q. Wei, L. Ma, W. Ye, H. Li, B. Zhou, Z. Yu, C. Te Lin, J. Luo, and X. Gan, Appl. Energy 233–234, 208 (2019).

8 G. Hamaoui, N. Horny, C.L. Gomez-heredia, J.A. Ramirez-rincon, J. Ordonez-miranda, C. Champeaux, F. Dumas-bouchiat, J.J. Alvarado-gil, Y. Ezzahri, K. Joulain, and M. Chirtoc, Sci. Rep. 9, 8728 (2019).

9 M.Y. Wong, C.Y. Tso, T.C. Ho, and H.H. Lee, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 164, 120607 (2021).

10 M. Kasprzak, M. Sledzinska, K. Zaleski, I. Iatsunskyi, F. Alzina, S. Volz, C.M. Sotomayor Torres, and B. Graczykowski, Nano Energy 78, 105261 (2020).

http://esycom.u-pem.fr/ • https://limms-tokyo.org • www.univ-gustave-eiffel.fr • www.esiee.fr