How imperfect interfaces affect the nonlinear transport properties in composite nanomaterials.

Nanomaterials composed of a population of particles dispersed in a matrix represent the building block for the next generation of several technologies: energy storage and conversion, thermal management, electronics, and photovoltaics. When interfaces between particles and matrix are imperfect, the size of the particles may strongly influence the effective linear and nonlinear response of the whole system. Here, we study these scale effects mainly focussing on the nonlinear transport behavior of composite structures. The theory is developed, in the framework of the electrical conductivity, for an arbitrary nonlinearity of the constituents; however, explicit results are discussed for Kerr-like nonlinear responses. Two kinds of imperfect interfaces are considered: the T-model and the Π-model, which represent a generalization of the classical schemes largely employed in literature, namely the low and the high conducting interface models. The dependence of the nonlinear effective properties on the size of the dispersed particles is explained through intrinsic length scales governing some universal scaling laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]