X-ray Tomography Coupled with Finite Elements, A Fast Method to Design Aerogel Composites and Prove Their Superinsulation Experimentally.

Composite aerogels can include fibers, opacifiers and binders but are rarely designed and optimized to achieve the best thermal/mechanical efficiency. This paper proposes a three-dimensional X-ray tomography-based method for designing composites. Two types of models are considered: classical and inexpensive homogenization models and more refined finite element models.

Temperature-controlled spectrophotometry: a simultaneous analysis of phase transition, thermal degradation and optical properties of semi-transparent composites from 20 °C to 450 °C.

So far, optical and effective radiative properties of polymer matrix based composites were investigated at temperatures well below their degradation temperature. At the same time, polymers exhibit temperature dependent physical properties and may undergo structural changes as their temperature raises. In this work, we employ the "Temperature-Controlled Spectrophotometry", a new method enabling to identify simultaneously phase transitions, thermal degradation and radiative properties of semi-transparent composites over a large temperature range.

Curvature and temperature-dependent thermal interface conductance between nanoscale gold and water.

Plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can convert laser irradiation into thermal energy for a variety of applications. Although heat transfer through the AuNP-water interface is considered an essential part of the plasmonic heating process, there is a lack of mechanistic understanding of how interface curvature and the heating itself impact interfacial heat transfer. Here, we report atomistic molecular dynamics simulations that investigate heat transfer through nanoscale gold-water interfaces.