Abstract The enhanced interfacial interaction between carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and thus the promoted interfacial thermal transport (ITT), are keys to improve the efficiency of CNT-assembled thermo-functional devices and materials, including energy transmission medium and thermal interface materials. Here, by using the intriguing CNT fibers decorated with Au nanoparticles (NPs) as a promising platform, we attain to the underlying mechanism for the remarkably boosted ITT of CNT/Au/CNT contacts. The enhancement is ascribed to the NP-induced excitation of low-frequency phonon (LFP) modes in CNTs, a strong mechanism to redistribute LFP modes into the interfacial carbon atoms and then to activate a resonance with the LFPs of Au NPs, resulting in more heat transfer across the contact. Furthermore, the Au NP/CNT fiber also exhibits an enhanced interfacial electrical transport, owing to the extraction of highly degenerate electronic density of states near the van Hove singularities, and thus induces an equivalent p-type doping for the CNTs. The present study demonstrates a new strategy to develop multifunctional CNT fibers with enhanced electrical and thermal conductivities.

中文翻译：

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Au纳米粒子增强的界面相互作用增强了碳纳米管纤维的导电性和导热性

摘要 碳纳米管（CNT）之间增强的界面相互作用，从而促进界面热传输（ITT），是提高碳纳米管组装热功能器件和材料（包括能量传输介质和热界面材料）效率的关键。在这里，通过使用用 Au 纳米粒子 (NPs) 装饰的有趣的 CNT 纤维作为一个有前途的平台，我们获得了显着提高 CNT/Au/CNT 接触的 ITT 的潜在机制。这种增强归因于 CNT 中低频声子 (LFP) 模式的 NP 诱导激发，这是一种将 LFP 模式重新分配到界面碳原子中然后激活与 Au NPs 的 LFP 共振的强大机制，从而导致更多接触面传热。此外，由于在范霍夫奇点附近提取了高度简并的电子态密度，Au NP/CNT 纤维还表现出增强的界面电传输，因此诱导了 CNT 的等效 p 型掺杂。本研究展示了一种开发具有增强的导电性和导热性的多功能碳纳米管纤维的新策略。