Quantifying the Thermal Accommodation Coefficient for Iron Surfaces Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

With nanotechnology becoming an increasingly important field in contemporary science, there is a growing demand for a better understanding of energy exchange on the nanoscale. Techniques, such as time-resolved laser-induced incandescence, for example, require accurate models of gas-surface interaction to correctly predict nanoparticle characteristics. The present work uses molecular dynamics to define the thermal accommodation coefficient of various gases on iron surfaces. A more in depth analysis examines the scattering distributions from the surfaces and examines how well existing scattering kernels and classical theories can represent these distributions. The molecular dynamics-derived values are also compared to recent experimental time-resolved laser-induced incandescence studies aimed at evaluating the thermal accommodation coefficient across a range of surface-gas combinations.