Simulation of Thermal and Electrical Transport in Nanotube and Nanowire Composites

Abstract

AbstractNanotube-based thin-film composites promise significant improvement over existing technologies in the performance of large-area macroelectronics, flexible electronics, energy harvesting and storage, and in bio-chemical sensing applications. We present an overview of recent research on the electrical and thermal performance of thin-film composites composed of random 2D dispersions of nanotubes in a host matrix. Results from direct simulations of electrical and thermal transport in these composites using a finite volume method are compared to those using an effective medium approximation. The role of contact physics and percolation in influencing electrical and thermal behavior are explored. The effect of heterogeneous networks of semiconducting and metallic tubes on the transport properties of the thin film composites is investigated. Transport through a network of nanotubes is dominated by the interfacial resistance at the contact of two tubes. We explore the interfacial thermal interaction between two carbon nanotubes in a crossed configuration using molecular dynamics simulation and wavelet methods. We pass a high temperature pulse along one of the nanotubes and investigate the energy transfer to the other tube. Wavelet transformations of heat pulses show that how different phonon modes are excited and how they evolve and propagate along the tube axis depending on its chirality.KeywordsNanotubeThin film transistorNanocompositePercolationEffective medium approximationMolecular dynamicsWavelet