Thermal transport across nanoscale solid-fluid interfaces

An explanation for the effective thermal resistance R(K) can be based on the impedance to the passage of thermal phonons across an interface. We conjecture that (1) increasing the fluid pressure, and (2) making an interface more hydrophilic should facilitate better acoustic matching and thus lower R(K). Our molecular dynamics simulations confirm this. Overall, R(K) decreases with increasing temperature and is inversely proportional to the heat flux.