OPTICAL, THERMAL, MELTING POINT, ELECTRICAL

AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF NANOMATERIALS

Basic Concepts
Energy Carriers
Phonon
Definition of Phonon: Quantized lattice vibration energy with wave nature of
propagation
- dominant in crystalline material
A photon is the smallest discrete amount or quantum of electromagnetic radiation. It
is the basic unit of all light.
Photons are always in motion and, in a vacuum, travel at a constant speed to all
observers of 2.998 x 108 m/s. This is commonly referred to as the speed of light,
denoted by the letter c.
Mechanism of a phonon:
• Consider the regular lattice of atoms in a uniform solid material.
• There should be energy associated with the vibrations of these atoms.
• But they are tied together with bonds, so they can't vibrate independently.
• The vibrations take the form of collective modes which propagate through the material.
• Such propagating lattice vibrations can be considered to be sound waves.
• And their propagation speed is the speed of sound in the material.
Phonon properties:
• Phonons are quantized lattice vibrations
– store and transport thermal energy
– primary energy carriers in insulators and semi-conductors (computers!)
Phonons are characterized by their
– energy
– wavelength (wave vector)
– polarization (direction)
– branch (optical/acoustic) ➔ acoustic phonons are the primary thermal
energy carriers
Photon
Definition of Photon :
Quantized electromagnetic energy with wave nature of propagation
- energy carrier of radiative energy
Photonproperties
The basic properties of photons are:
•They have zero mass and rest energy. They only exist as moving particles.
•They are elementary particles despite lacking rest mass.
•They have no electric charge.
•They are stable.
•They are spin-1 particles which makes them bosons.
•They carry energy and momentum which are dependent on the frequency.
•They can have interactions with other particles such as electrons, such as the Compton effect.
•They can be destroyed or created by many natural processes, for instance when radiation is
absorbed or emitted.
When in empty space, they travel at the speed of light.
Free electrons :
• In solids, electrons in outer most orbits of atoms determine its electrical properties.
• In addition, it explains the electrical, thermal and magnetic properties of solids.
• The structure and properties of solids are explained employing their electronic
structure by the electron theory of solids.
Free Electrons are dominant in metals
1-Optical properties in Nanomaterials-:
1-Nanocrystalline systems have attracted much interest due to their novel optical properties, which
differ remarkably from bulk crystals.
2-Applications based on optical properties of nanomaterials include optical detector, sensor,
imaging, display, solar cell, photocatalysis, photoelectrochemistry and biomedicine.
Interaction of light with matter :
1-The ‘colour’ of a material is a function of the interaction between the light and the object.
2- If a material absorbs light of certain wavelengths, an observer will not see these colours in the
reflected light.
3-Only reflected wavelengths reach our eyes and this makes an object appear a certain colour.
4 - For example, leaves appear green because chlorophyll, which is a pigment, absorbs the blue and red
colours of the spectrum and reflects the green.
In general light (I) incident on a material can be transmitted (T), absorbed (A) or reflected (R):
I = T+A+R
As the size of the materials is reduced, scattering (S) of light can also contribute
5 to its colour
(or transparency).
 2-Thermal Conductivity in Nanomaterials:-
In general, increasing the number of grain boundaries will enhance phonon scattering at the
disordered boundaries, resulting in lower thermal conductivity. Thus, nanocrystalline
materials would be expected to have lower thermal conductivity compared to
conventional materials. However, as the grain sizes assume nanodimensions, their
size becomes comparable to the mean free paths of phonons that transport thermal
energy. Thus, nanomaterials can show widely different properties compared to coarse-
grained materials, due to the photon confinement and quantization effects of photon transport.
It has been observed that in addition to the grain size, the shape also has an influence
on the thermal properties of nanomaterials. For example, one- dimensional nanowires
may offer ultralow thermal conductivities.
In contrast, the tubular structures result in an extremely high thermal conductivity along the axial
direction. However, high anisotropy in their heat transport property is observed, making the
thermal transport direction dependent.
In multilayered coatings, many collective modes of phonon transport may appear besides the phonon
modes in each single layer; when the phonon coherence length becomes comparable to the thickness of
each layer, the transport properties are significantly influenced. When the mean free path of phonons
spans multiple interfaces, the phonon dispersion relation is modified, resulting in enhanced scattering
due to decrease in phonon group velocity. Further, if the multilayer is designed to have a superlattice
structure, and alternate films have a large mismatch in the phonon dispersion relations, it is possible that
phonons in a certain frequency range may not propagate to the neighbouring layers unless there are mode
conversions at the interface. Also, the presence of interface dislocations and defects can contribute to
enhanced boundary scattering. All these factors can contribute to the lower thermal conductivity of
multilayered nanostructured filmsThe use of a nanofluid to enhance thermal transport is another promising
application of the thermal properties of nanomaterials. Nanofluids represent the class of liquids that have a
stable colloidal dispersion of nanoparticles distributed uniformly in the medium. Ithas beenobserved that
1
dispersion of a wide variety of and nanoparticles of oxides, nitrides, metals, metalcarbidesnanofibres,
7 such
as single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, can significantly enhance the thermal conductivity of the
fluid.
3- Melting Point Property:-
This phenomenon is very prominent in nanoscale materials, which melt at temperatures lower
than bulk materials.
The mechanism:
• Melting temperature of a bulk material is not dependent on its size.
• However as the dimensions of a material decrease towards the atomic scale, the melting
temperature scales with the material dimensions.
• The decrease in melting temperature can be on the order of tens to hundreds of
degrees for metals with nanometer dimensions
• Melting-point depression is most evident in nanowires, nanotubes and nanoparticles,
• Changes in melting point occur because nanoscale materials have a much larger
• surface-to- volume ratio than bulk materials, drastically altering their thermodynamic
• and thermal properties.
• The melting temperature of a nanoparticle decreases sharply as the particle reaches
critical diameter, usually < 50 nm for common engineering metals. Figure (1)
shows the shape of a typical melting curve for a metal nanoparticle as a function of its
diameter.
4-Electrical Properties:-
-The properties like conductivity or resistivity are come under category of electrical properties.
-These properties are observed to change at nanoscale level like optical properties.
The examples of the change in electrical properties in nanomaterials are:
-Conductivity of a bulk or large material does not depend upon dimensions like diameter or area of
cross section and twist in the conducting wire etc.
-However it is found that in case of carbon nanotubes conductivity changes with change in area of cross
section.
Nanoparticles
• Conventional materials: Grain size micron to mm
• Nanoparticles increase grain boundaries
• Influence on mechanical properties: Increased hardness, yield strength, elastic modulus ,and
toughness
Mechanical properties of nanomaterials compared to coarse grain materials
• Higher Young modulus and tensile strength (to 4 times higher)
• Lower plastic deformation
• More brittle
Strength and Hardness with grain size
-Strength and Hardness of nanostructured material
increases with decreasing size
-Grain boundaries deformation

Comparison of Young modulus

Material Young modulus (GPa)
Rubber 0.1
Al 70
Fe 200
SiC 440
Fe nanoparticles (100 nm) 800
C nanotubes 1000
Diamond 1200
 Elongation nanostructured materials
Elongation decreased
Lower density of mobile dislocations
Short distance of dislocation movement
Mechanical properties
Mechanical properties: Strength, toughness, hardness increased
Materials more brittle
Due to increased grain boundaries density and less dislocations density

Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials

• Hall-Petch effect for metals
Hardness and yield strength increase with decreasing grain size
• ‘Reverse’ Hall-Petch
Softening when grain size is in nanometer range
• Optimum grain size for strongest material
• Crossover from dislocation-dominated plasticity
to grain-boundary sliding
• dependence of elastic properties on grain size?
Softening not limited to plastic deformations.
• What about non-metals? Softening for
non-metals, such as diamond.
Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials
• Universal laws for softening of nanocrystalline materials
– Emerge from our studies of elastic response of very different materials, such as copper
and diamond.
– Appear to be general, independent of chemical composition of
material.
– Derived from general considerations of increasing fraction of grain
boundary atoms.

• Similar softening for ultra-nanocrystalline diamond