Effects of interface parameters on transport properties of nano-composites

A Continuum Medium Approximation (CMA) and an empirical Effective Medium Approximation (EMA)-type formulation are introduced to estimate the transport properties, including the electrical conductivity, the thermal conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient and the Hall mobility, of a nano-structured composite. The CMA contains the interface parameters mediated by the newly introduced distribution functions to resolve predictions deviating from the inclusion properties at the volume fraction of 1 in the existing EMAs and gives a prediction agreed well with both the empirical EMA and the experimental data. The empirical EMA-type formulation unifies the differences between the predictions of the CMAs for the media A_1−xB_x and B_1−xA_x and gives a unique prediction that agrees very well with experimental data at a given volume fraction ranging from 0 to 1. The effects of the interface parameters on the transport properties were studied and the results indicated that the efficiency of a nano-structured composite could be further improved by optimizing the interface parameters.