Description
In this book, the limited understanding of the local thermal, mechanical and thermoelectric properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials is addressed through the development of advanced scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques specifically designed to quantify these nanoscale physical phenomena. The increased research focus on 2D systems, initiated by the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of graphene, has driven a substantial expansion of the field into new materials, heterostructures and unique physical features, with research output growing exponentially each year. Yet, despite the extensive progress in exploring their electronic characteristics, equally significant properties such as thermal transport, mechanical response and thermoelectric behavior remain comparatively underexplored. This knowledge gap arises largely from the lack of experimental methodologies capable of accurately probing atomically thin layers and nanoscale domains. By introducing novel SPM approaches and refined analytical and numerical models, this book provides the means to perform direct, quantitative measurements of these properties and to study their complex interactions, i.e., thermoelectric, thermomechanical and electromechanical phenomena, at an unprecedented level of precision. The combination of experimental innovation and theoretical modeling reported here enables the discovery of new physical characteristics and material behaviors that extend the boundaries of 2D material science. Altogether, this work offers a comprehensive and detailed study of the experimental methods, modeling principles and resulting breakthroughs, becoming an essential resource for academic and industrial researchers exploring the fundamental understanding and application of 2D materials and their heterostructures.
Introduction.- Foundations of multiphysics at the nanoscale.- Applied methods for materials and structures preparation.- Thermal transport in two-dimensional nanolayers.- Thermoelectricity in 2D 3D nanostructures.- Local thermoelectricity in layered nanostructures.- Thermal, electrical and mechanical cross-interaction in nanostructures.- Conclusions and perspectives.
Sergio Gonzalez-Munoz is Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he studies the optomechanical properties of cellulose nanocrystals and MXene thin films. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from Lancaster University in 2024 under the supervision of Oleg V. Kolosov, focusing on the development of advanced scanning probe microscopy techniques to characterize thermal, thermoelectric and nanomechanical phenomena in two-dimensional materials. Sergio completed his B.Eng. in mechanical engineering at the University of Lleida in 2018, completing a thesis project on robotics. He later obtained his M.Sc. in advanced nanoscience and nanotechnology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, conducting research on graphene-based neural interfaces supervised by Jose A. Garrido. His scientific contributions have led to multiple conference presentations and six journal publications, including articles in Nature Communications, Advanced Functional Materials and Advanced Materials Interfaces. He received the Lancaster University Physics Department 2023 Award for exceptional contribution to high impact publications and the E-MRS 2023 Young Scientist Award. Outside the lab, Sergio enjoys photography, basketball, football, and hiking.
