Nonthermal plasma synthesis of silicon nanoparticles and their thermal transport properties

Abstract

Silicon-based nanostructured materials have been studied to utilize and observe the novel properties of silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs). Nonthermal plasma was employed to synthesize SiNPs, producing particles below 10 nm with narrow size distribution. The synthesis process of nonthermal plasma is discussed including the parameters that determine the particle size, yield and crystallinity of SiNPs. In this study, nanostructured material of SiNP/polystyrene (PS) nanocomposite has been observed to have a significant decrease in thermal conductivity. In this paper, post-processing of thermal annealing was applied, and the thermal conductivity measurement result shows the increase of thermal conductivity values. Although there is no significant enhancement of SiNP dispersion in the PS matrix, the thermal annealing induced molecular structure change, resulting in thermal transport enhancement at the interfacial region. The preservation of unique properties of nanoscale materials and low-cost fabrication by a silicon ink process at room temperature provide the promising potential of the SiNP-based nanostructured material. In addition, the combination of interfacial region engineering and post-processing provides controllable thermal transport properties for application in heat transfer management.