The PETITE project will design 2D materials with improved thermal properties for cooling electronic devices

by Virginia Greco

Funded by EIG CONCERT-Japan, the project will be coordinated by the ICN2, with Dr Marianna Sledzinska as primary investigator.

Dr Marianna Sledzinska, research engineer in the ICN2 Phononic and Photonic Nanostructures Group, is the primary investigator and coordinator of a new project, called PETITE (‘Phonon Engineering in Precisely Assembled Atomically Thin Layers’), which has been funded by the European Interest Group (EIG) CONCERT-Japan through the 9^th Joint Call on Design of Materials with Atomic Precision (2022).

The PETITE project aims to develop advanced 2D materials, designed with atomic precision, that enable much more efficient heat dissipation in electronic devices. To achieve this goal, the researchers will control the precise arrangement of few atomic layers, stack one on top of the other, as well as their relative orientation. In fact, ultra-thin materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit thickness-dependent electrical, optical and thermal properties. In addition, it has been demonstrated that their elastic and thermal behaviour is strongly influenced by the relative angles between atomic layers.

The institutes working on the project will take advantage of this tunable properties of 2D materials to engineer anisotropic thermal conductors, i.e., materials in which heat flows easier in one direction than in others. Since more than 50% of failures of electronic devices are due to overheating, the ability to guide heat along predefined paths, without affecting adjacent components, can represent a breakthrough in thermal management and durability of electronic systems.

PETITE will combine theoretical studies, material developments, and sample fabrication and measurements, leveraging on the specific expertise of the three research institutes involved: the ICN2 –which is the coordinator—, the University of Tokyo (U Tokyo, Japan), and Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU, Poland). Besides Dr Marianna Sledzinska, other members of the ICN2 Phononic and Photonic Nanostructures Group –group leader Prof. Dr Clivia M Sotomayor Torres and Dr Francesc Alzina– and of the ICN2 Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience –group leader ICREA Prof. Stephan Roche, Dr Aron Cummings, and Onurçan Kaya– will participate in the project.

The European Interest Group (EIG) CONCERT-Japan is an international joint initiative to support and enhance science, technology and innovation (STI) cooperation between European countries and Japan. Its primary function is to implement multilateral joint funding, with the aim of strengthening cooperation and promoting transnational mobility between European countries and Japan in various fields of STI.