Spatial control of heat transport using Janus nanoparticles*

Janus Nanoparticles (JNP) are heterogeneous materials that bring unique opportunities to technological and medical applications. Here we present a non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and theoretical investigation of the temperature field generated around heated Janus Nanoparticles to assess the performance of the particles in the generation of anisotropic heating. The contrasting thermal conductances of the fluid-material interfaces arising from the heterogeneous composition of the JNP provide a route to control the heat transport and thermal fields around the nanoparticle, leading to temperature differences between both sides of the nanoparticle that is significant for particles comprising regions with disparate hydrophilicity. We investigate the thermal transport in these heteregeneous materials using computational models of gold nanoparticles passivated with hydrophobic and hydrophilic theoretical continuum models that predict the temperature field as a function of the interfacial thermal conductance and nanoparticle size.