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Development of nitrogen-decorated carbon dots (NCDs) thermally conductive film for windows application

Carbon Letters volume 32, pages 1065–1072 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

A thermally conductive film can be used to laterally conduct heat along the surface of glass windows, toward its edges where a heat sink could be located, thereby reducing temperature differential between the inside and outside surfaces of the window and thus lowering cross-sectional conductive heat transfer. This technique can offer optimized thermal energy management to modern buildings without the weight and cost of double- or triple-glazed window panels. In this work, a thermally conductive film was developed using carbon dots with inherently high thermal conductivity. Nitrogen atoms were then added to the carbon dots structure to intensify high-frequency phonon that would result in higher lateral thermal conductivity. The nitrogen-decorated carbon dots (NCDs) were prepared by a simple hydrothermal synthesis of citric acid with the addition of ethylenediamine as the N source. The NCDs were added to a cellulose-based solution and drop-casted onto FTO glass resulting in a transparent, laterally thermally conductive film, that also blocks ultraviolet (UV) and high-intensity blue light radiation. The visible-light transmission of the NCDs’ film was found to be up to 65%, comparable to the commercial solar films. The lateral thermal conductivity of the NCDs’ film increases with increasing N content up to an optimum level, suggesting the role of N to “concentrate’ the high-frequency phonons responsible for effective lateral thermal conductivity of the films.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by grants from the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus of Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Ronn Goei, Frankie Ting Feng Tan, Amanda Jiamin Ong & Alfred Iing Yoong Tok

  2. Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise, NEW-CREATE Phase II, Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore, 138602, Singapore

    Ronn Goei, Amanda Jiamin Ong, Daniel Mandler & Alfred Iing Yoong Tok

  3. Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 9190401, Jerusalem, Israel

    Daniel Mandler

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  1. Ronn Goei
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  2. Frankie Ting Feng Tan
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  5. Alfred Iing Yoong Tok
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Correspondence to Alfred Iing Yoong Tok.

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Goei, R., Tan, F.T.F., Ong, A.J. et al. Development of nitrogen-decorated carbon dots (NCDs) thermally conductive film for windows application. Carbon Lett. 32, 1065–1072 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-022-00337-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-022-00337-7

Keywords

  • Nitrogen-decorated carbon dots
  • Heat conduction film
  • Carbon quantum dots
  • NCDs
  • High-frequency phonon tunneling effect