Radiative heat transfer between core-shell nanoparticles

Abstract

Radiative heat transfer in systems with core-shell nanoparticles may exhibit not only a combination of disparate physical properties of its components but also further enhanced properties that arise from the synergistic properties of the core and shell components. We study the thermal conductance between two core-shell nanoparticles (CSNPs). The contribution of electric and magnetic dipole moments to the thermal conductance depend sensitively on the core and shell materials, and adjustable by core size and shell thickness. We predict that the radiative heat transfer in a dimer of Au@SiO2 CSNPs (i.e., silica-coated gold nanoparticles) could be enhanced several order of magnitude compared to bare Au nanoparticles. However, the reduction of several orders of magnitude in the heat transfer is possible between SiO2@Au CSNPs (i.e., silica as a core and gold as a shell) than that of uncoated SiO2 nanoparticles.