An Essay on the Heat of Transport in Solids and a Partial Guide to the Literature

Abstract

This article reviews the subject of the Soret effect and Thermodiffusion in solids more generally. In doing so it draws upon computer simulations made with a method (the Grout-Gillan method) derived from the Green-Kubo approach to transport coefficients in solids. The insights into the make-up of heats of transport parameters, Q*, so obtained are described and used to provide additional insight into measured heats of transport in situations where no reliable theories or simulations exist. These insights also point to the relations between heats of transport on the one hand and phonon thermal conductivity and focussed collision sequences on the other. These relations point to circumstances where the heat of transport may be small (e.g. low coordination in the lattice) or can be estimated from heats of activation for atom movements. In other cases the Grout-Gillan simulation method may offer the most reliable approach. These new insights are expected to be useful in materials modelling.