Thermal Transport through Solid-Liquid Interface: Effect of the Interfacial Coupling and Nanostructured Surfaces

The solid-liquid interfacial thermal transport depends on the physical properties of the interfaces, which have been studied extensively in open literature. However, the fundamental understanding on the mechanism of the solid-liquid interfacial thermal transport is far from clear. In the present paper, heat transfer through solid-liquid interfaces is studied based on the non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. It is shown that the interfacial heat transfer can be enhanced by increasing interfacial coupling strength or introducing the nanostructured surfaces. The underlying mechanism of the interfacial thermal transport is analyzed based on the calculation results of the heat flux distribution, potential mean force, and the vibrational density of states at the interfacial region. It is found that the interfacial thermal transport is dominated by the kinetic and virial contributions in the interface region. The enhancement of the interfacial heat transfer can be attributed to the fluid adsorption on the solid surface under a strong interfacial interaction or by the nanostructured solid surfaces, which reduce the mismatch of the vibrational density of states at the solid-liquid interface region.