Nonlinear thermal transport in graphene nanoribbon: A molecular dynamics study

• Published in: Physica A 2023-01, Vol.610, p.128416, Article 128416
• Main Authors: Yali, Reza Pahlavan, Mehri, Ali, Jamaati, Maryam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: GNR; NEMD; Nonlinearity; Power-law; Thermal conductivity
• ISSN: 0378-4371; 1873-2119
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2022.128416

Effects of different factors on the thermal conductivity of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) is investigated using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations with LAMMPS code, taking advantage of the optimized Tersoff interatomic potential. The influences of temperature, size, and layer number on thermal transport are considered for both zigzag and armchair GNRs. It is found that increasing the size (length⩽40 nm and width⩽10 nm) enhances the thermal conductivity of both GNR types by a power-law relationship at room temperature. In contrast, the thermal conductivity of GNRs drastically drops as the temperature rises in the range of 50–500 K. The power-law reduction of conductivity, owing to the temperature increase, is faster in zigzag GNR than in armchair one. In addition, in the range of 1–10 layers, the thermal conductivity experiences a power-law decrease with increasing number of GNRs layers because of the out-of-plane scattering of phonons. Our results reveal how boundary scattering, growing phonon number and Umklapp scattering govern nonlinear thermal transport mechanism. This study also demonstrates a dramatic influence of the edge structure of GNR on thermal conduction. [Display omitted] •Thermal conductivity of graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is numerically investigated.•Length & width growth leads to power-law increase in thermal conductivity of GNR.•Thermal conductivity of GNR nonlinearly drops by rising the temperature.•Adding layers on top of GNR decreases its thermal conductivity in power-law fashion.•Zigzag GNR has higher thermal conductivity than Armchair one due to its edge states.