The influence of interface bonding on thermal transport through solid–liquid interfaces

Abstract

We use time-domain thermoreflectance to show that interface thermal conductance, G, is proportional to the thermodynamic work of adhesion between gold and water, WSL, for a series of five alkane-thiol monolayers at the gold-water interface. WSL is a measure of the bond strength across the solid-liquid interface. Differences in bond strength, and thus differences in WSL, are achieved by varying the terminal group (ω-group) of the alkane-thiol monolayers on the gold. The interface thermal conductance values were in the range 60–190 MW m−2 K−1, and the solid-liquid contact angles span from 25° to 118°.