Temperature Dependence of Thermal Conductivity of Proteins: Contributions of Thermal Expansion and Grüneisen Parameter

The thermal conductivity of many materials depends on temperature due to several factors, including variation of heat capacity with temperature, changes in vibrational dynamics with temperature, and change in volume with temperature. For proteins some, but not all, of these influences on the variation of thermal conductivity with temperature have been investigated in the past. In this study, we examine the influence of change in volume, and corresponding changes in vibrational dynamics, on the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity. Using a measured value for the coefficient of thermal expansion and recently computed values for the Grüneisen parameter of proteins we find that the thermal conductivity increases with increasing temperature due to change in volume with temperature. We compare the impact of thermal expansion on the variation of the thermal conductivity with temperature found in this study with contributions of heat capacity and anharmonic coupling examined previously. Using values of thermal transport coefficients computed for proteins we also model heating of water in a protein solution following photoexcitation.