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  • Review Article
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Transforming heat transfer with thermal metamaterials and devices

Nature Reviews Materials volume 6, pages 488–507 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The demand for sophisticated tools and approaches in heat management and control has triggered the fast development of fields that include conductive thermal metamaterials, nanophononics, and far-field and near-field radiative thermal management. In this Review, we offer a unified perspective on the control of heat transfer, summarizing complementary paradigms towards the manipulation of physical parameters and the realization of unprecedented phenomena in heat transfer using artificial structures. The Review is divided into three parts that focus on the three main categories of heat flow control. Thermal conduction and radiation, at both the macroscale and microscale, are emphasized in the first and second parts. The third part discusses efforts to actively introduce heat sources or tune the material parameters with multiphysical effects in conduction, radiation and convection. We conclude by analysing the challenges in this research area and surveying new possible directions, in particular topological thermal effects, heat waves and quantum thermal effects.

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Fig. 1: Macroscopic approaches for manipulating heat conduction.
Fig. 2: Microscopic approaches to heat conduction.
Fig. 3: Far-field thermal radiation manipulation.
Fig. 4: Near-field thermal radiation manipulation.
Fig. 5: Multiphysical effects for heat transfer manipulation.

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Acknowledgements

C.-W.Q. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education, Singapore (grant no. R-263-000-E19-114). W.L. and S.F. acknowledge support by the US Department of Energy (grant no. DE-FG02-07ER46426). W.L. acknowledges discussions with W. Jin and L. Fan.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Ying Li, Wei Li, Tiancheng Han, Xu Zheng.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Ying Li, Jiaxin Li & Cheng-Wei Qiu

  2. Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Ying Li

  3. International Joint Innovation Center, Key Lab. of Advanced Micro/Nano Electronic Devices & Smart Systems of Zhejiang, The Electromagnetics Academy of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Haining, China

    Ying Li

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Wei Li & Shanhui Fan

  5. GPL, State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

    Wei Li

  6. National Engineering Research Center of Electromagnetic Radiation Control Materials, State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Film and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Tiancheng Han

  7. Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Xu Zheng & Baowen Li

  8. School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Jiaxin Li

  9. Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Baowen Li

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  1. Ying Li
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  3. Tiancheng Han
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  8. Cheng-Wei Qiu
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Contributions

C.W., Y.L., B.L., W.L. and S.F. discussed the content of the Review. Y.L, W.L, T.H. and X.Z. wrote the Review. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Baowen Li, Shanhui Fan or Cheng-Wei Qiu.

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Li, Y., Li, W., Han, T. et al. Transforming heat transfer with thermal metamaterials and devices. Nat Rev Mater 6, 488–507 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00283-2

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