Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on “Micro- and Nanoscale Surface Engineering for Thermal Transport and Harvesting” promotes an original corpus of articles featuring the latest fundamental and methodological developments on surface thermal properties. Surface and interfacial properties are intrinsically involved with ultimate scales related to the mode wavelength down to the atomic positions. In this range, how energy is reflected at a surface, transmitted at an interface or propagating along both, remains an open scientific question. While semi-empirical models, including average parameters and often macroscopic quantities, have been the reference for decades, not only key physical concepts but also a large ensemble of crucial microscopic quantities are still missing to correctly address the problem of energy reflection, transmission and propagation at an interface. This question obviously requires the development of advanced theoretical, simulation and experimental tools.

With the progresses of low-dimensional materials, as well as of molecular transport, a new toolbox is now proposed that allows for designing thermal interfacial properties beyond the state-of-the-art. Be they based on graphene, nanotubes, nanowires, nanofilms or on various types of functionalization, such as SAMs (self-assembled monolayers), interfacial properties are governing the performances of nano-composite at broad, thermal interface materials, heat spreaders, radiatively absorbing and coolant films to name a few.

Downstream, thermoelectric conversion, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy harvesters, porous insulators and also thermal management of opto/electronic/mechanical micro devices are, for instance, impacted.

With this Special Issue, we are excited to welcome any creative, state-of-the-art-and-beyond, as well as review, contributions to give body to the here-defined, fertile and amazing field of thermal surface engineering.    

In particular, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Fundamentals and new methodologies in thermal interfaces and coatings;
• Surface/interface thermal design of 2D-materials, nanostructures and polymers;
• Surface micro- and nanostructuration for the monitoring of radiative properties;
• Thermal spreaders and interfacial materials, radiative absorbers and coolants;
• Surface engineering in Thermoelectricity and Photovoltaics.

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Volz
Prof. Dr. Shiyun Xiong
Guest Editors

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