Effect of filler mass and binding on thermal conductivity of fully filled skutterudites

The relations between the thermal conductivity of cagelike structures and their crystal parameters are investigated using a two-dimensional toy model. The model consists of host atoms on a rectangular lattice with fillers at the center of each rectangle. The effect of mass and size of the filler on...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zebarjadi, Mona (Contributor), Esfarjani, Keivan (Contributor), Yang, Jian (Author), Ren, Z. F. (Author), Chen, Gang (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society, 2011-06-24T22:13:13Z.
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Summary:The relations between the thermal conductivity of cagelike structures and their crystal parameters are investigated using a two-dimensional toy model. The model consists of host atoms on a rectangular lattice with fillers at the center of each rectangle. The effect of mass and size of the filler on thermal conductivity is investigated using equilibrium molecular-dynamics simulations. We show that the thermal conductivity decreases with increasing atomic displacement parameter while it has local minima versus the filler to host mass ratio. Similar trends were observed in experiments on filled skutterudites. The trends are explained by analyzing the effect of the filler on the phonon dispersion and relaxation times of the host material.
United States. Dept. of Energy (DOE grant no. DE-FG02-09ER46577)
Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center
Robert Bosch GmbH
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Energy Initiative