Reducing interfacial thermal resistance by interlayer

Heat dissipation is crucial important for the performance and lifetime for highly integrated electronics, Li-ion battery-based devices and so on, which lies in the decrease of interfacial thermal resistance (ITR). To achieve this goal, introducing interlayer is the most widely used strategy in industry, which has attracted tremendous attention from researchers. In this review, we focus on bonding effect and bridging effect to illustrate how introduced interlayer decreases ITR. The behind mechanisms and theoretical understanding of these two effects are clearly illustrated. Simulative and experimental studies toward utilizing these two effects to decrease ITR of real materials and practical systems are reviewed. Specifically, the mechanisms and design rules for the newly emerged graded interlayers are discussed. The optimization of interlayers by machine learning algorithms are reviewed. Based on present researches, challenges and possible future directions about this topic are discussed.