Development of steady-state electrical-heating fluorescence-sensing (SEF) technique for thermal characterization of one dimensional (1D) structures by employing graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as temperature sensors

Nanotechnology. 2016 Nov 4;27(44):445706. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/27/44/445706. Epub 2016 Sep 27.

Abstract

A fluorescence signal has been demonstrated as an effective implement for micro/nanoscale temperature measurement which can be realized by either direct fluorescence excitation from materials or by employing nanoparticles as sensors. In this work, a steady-state electrical-heating fluorescence-sensing (SEF) technique is developed for the thermal characterization of one-dimensional (1D) materials. In this method, the sample is suspended between two electrodes and applied with steady-state Joule heating. The temperature response of the sample is monitored by collecting a simultaneous fluorescence signal from the sample itself or nanoparticles uniformly attached on it. According to the 1D heat conduction model, a linear temperature dependence of heating powers is obtained, thus the thermal conductivity of the sample can be readily determined. In this work, a standard platinum wire is selected to measure its thermal conductivity to validate this technique. Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are employed as the fluorescence agent for temperature sensing. Parallel measurement by using the transient electro-thermal (TET) technique demonstrates that a small dose of GQDs has negligible influence on the intrinsic thermal property of platinum wire. This SEF technique can be applied in two ways: for samples with a fluorescence excitation capability, this method can be implemented directly; for others with weak or no fluorescence excitation, a very small portion of nanoparticles with excellent fluorescence excitation can be used for temperature probing and thermophysical property measurement.