Thermal conductivity of self-assembled nano-structured ZnO bulk ceramics

In this study, we describe the changes in thermal conductivity behavior of ZnO-Al micro- and nano-two-phase self-assembled composites with varying grain sizes. The reduction in thermal conductivity values of micro-composites was limited to similar to 15% for ZnO-4% Al. However, nano-composites exhibited large reduction, by a factor of about three, due to uniform distribution of nano-precipitates (ZnAl2O4) and large grain boundary area. Interestingly, the micro-composites revealed continuous decrease in thermal conductivity with increase in Al substitution while the nano-composites exhibited the lowest magnitudes for 2% Al concentration. Raman spectra indicated that phonon confinement in ZnO-Al nano-composites causes drastic decrease in the value of thermal conductivity. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4745034]