Open AccessMolecular dynamics simulation of thermal conductivity of mesoporous α-Al2O3
Author(s) -
Songliu Yuan,
Yanhui Feng,
Xin Wang,
Xinxin Zhang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
wuli xuebao
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 47
ISSN - 1000-3290
DOI - 10.7498/aps.63.014402
Subject(s) - thermal conductivity , mesoporous material , materials science , porosity , molecular dynamics , phonon , porous medium , phonon scattering , atmospheric temperature range , thermal , chemical physics , composite material , condensed matter physics , thermodynamics , chemistry , physics , biochemistry , catalysis , computational chemistry
In this paper, molecular dynamics simulation was performed to predict the thermal conductivities of ordered mesoporous α-Al2O3. A kind of porous structure was proposed to guarantee the electrical neutrality. Based on the Matsui potential, the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method adapted by Mller-Plathe was used to calculate the lattice thermal conductivity of mesoporous alumina along the axial direction of pore at various temperatures. Effects of pore size and porosity were also investigated. It turns out that with increasing temperature the thermal conductivity of mesoporous α-Al2O3 rises first until the temperature reaches 200–400 K, then decreases almost linearly. In addition, as the pore size gets larger, the specific surface area decreases, and the thermal conductivity increases because the boundary scattering has been weakened. On the other hand, the number of phonons in the pore wall decreases greatly with increasing porosity, thus dramatically reducing the thermal conductivity of the mesoporous material. Range analysis shows that the porosity is more influential than the pore size on the thermal conductivity of mesoporous materials.