High electron thermal conductivity of chiral carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Solving the Boltzmann kinetic equation with energy dispersion relation obtained in the tight-binding approximation, the carrier thermal conductivity κ e of a chiral carbon nanotube (CCNT) was determined. The dependence of κ e on temperature T, chiral geometric angle φ h and overlap integrals Δ z and Δ s were obtained. The results were numerically analysed. Unusually high values of κ e were observed suggesting that κ e is nontrivial in the calculation of the thermal conductivity κ of CCNT. More interestingly we noted also that at 104 K and for Δ z and Δ s values of 0.020 and 0.0150 eV , respectively the κ e value is about 41,000 W/mK as reported for a 99.9% pure 12 C crystal. We predict that the electron thermal conductivity of CCNT should exceed 200,000 W/mK at ∼80 K .