Enhanced thermoelectric properties in hybrid graphane/graphene nanoribbons

Abstract

The thermoelectric properties of hybrid graphane and graphene nanoribbons (GGNRs) are studied by the Landauer formula within the atomistic non-equilibrium Green's function. It is shown that hybrid GGNRs present the tunable band gap depending upon the width ratio of their components. Modulation of hybrid GGNRs can give rise to the lower thermal conductance of phonons and the better thermoelectric properties compared to pure graphene nanoribbons and graphane nanoribbons. Introducing the hydrogen defects can enhance the maximum of ZT (ZTmax) in both armchair GGNRs (AGGNRs) and zigzag GGNRs (ZGGNRs). Such the enhancement of ZTmax sensitively depends upon the defect concentrations. Among different defect concentrations, ZTmax for the 20% defect concentration has the highest value, which can be enhanced to 0.42 and 0.24 at T=300 K in AGGNRs and ZGGNRs, respectively. A laconic analysis of these results is given.