Ruddlesden-Popper chalcogenides push the limit of mechanical stiffness and glass-like thermal conductivity in single crystals.

ABSTRACT: Insulating materials featuring ultralow thermal conductivity for diverse applications also require robust mechanical properties. Conventional thinking, however, which correlates strong bonding with high atomic-vibration-mediated heat conduction, led to diverse weakly bonded materials that feature ultralow thermal conductivity and low elastic moduli. One must, therefore, search for strongly-bonded single crystals in which heat transport is impeded by other means. Here, we report intrinsic, glass-like, ultralow thermal conductivity and ultrahigh elastic-modulus/thermal-conductivity ratio in single-crystalline Ruddlesden-Popper Ban+1ZrnS3n+1, n = 2, 3, which are derivatives of BaZrS3. Their key features are strong anharmonicity and intra-unit-cell rock-salt blocks. The latter produce strongly

SUBMITTER: Hoque MSB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12222794 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature