Grain-size effects on the thermal conductivity of nanosolids

A theoretical model has been developed for the calculation of the thermal conductivity of nanomaterials with different shapes, such as spherical nanosolids, nanowires and nanofilms, based on size-dependent atomic cohesive energy. Thermal conductivity of nanosolids with different shapes decreased as the grain size decreased. The obtained results are compared with the available experimental data. A close agreement between theory and experiment confirmed the validity of the discussed method.