Special Issue "Symmetry/Asymmetry in Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Nanomaterials"

Dear Colleagues,

Symmetry is one of the most important governing notions in natural sciences, which also serves as an emerging tool to engineer and modulate the thermal and mechanical properties of a material system. Over the past decades, with the advent of modern nanofabrication technology, significant advances have been made on the understanding and control of thermal/mechanical properties of various types of nanostructures and their contacts with symmetrical/asymmetrical features. The artificially designed symmetric/asymmetrical nanoscale features could significantly alter their response to thermal/mechanical impulses, their capability in transferring/regulating energy flow, and also in friction energy dissipation.

Despite the great advances in these areas, significant problems still exist in the physical understanding for the governing mechanisms of thermal/mechanical properties modulations, which are critical to establishing the design principles to leverage this unique degree of freedom for different energy-related applications, e.g., thermoelectric, thermal insulators, microelectronic thermal management, energy storage technologies, and quantum qubit design and control. This Special Issue entitled “Symmetry/Asymmetry in Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Nanomaterials” covers a broad range of topics that lie at the crossroads between the concept of symmetry and thermal/mechanical physics, including (though not limited to) the following: 

1. Thermal/mechanical properties of metamaterials with symmetric/asymmetrical nanoscale features (e.g., understanding the competing effects between phonon coherence versus conventional boundary scattering);
2. Anisotropic thermal/mechanical properties of low dimensional van der Waals materials with asymmetric crystalline structures;
3. Thermal/mechanical properties of polymer nanomaterials with symmetric/asymmetrical molecular structures;
4. Thermal rectification/thermal diodes based on nanostructures with asymmetric features or asymmetric thermal contacts;
5. Anisotropy of friction and energy dissipation in nanostructures and materials.
6. Surface/molecular interactions in symmetric/asymmetric nanomaterials

Dr. Yin Zhang
Prof. Dr. Lin Yang
Dr. Zhiyong Wei
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• symmetries in nanoscience
• metamaterials
• phonon coherence
• anisotropic thermal/mechanical properties
• anisotropic van der Waals materials
• polymer nanomaterials
• thermal rectification/thermal diodes
• anisotropic friction energy dissipation
• surface/molecular interaction