Thermal Conductivity of Graphene on Nanostructure Size from Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Abstract

Thermal transport of graphene occupies a unique place in thermal management of electronic devices, especially for nanosize devices with high-density integration and high dissipated power. The structure of graphene on nanometer scale changes its thermal conductance. Here, the thermal characters of graphene have been researched by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation (NEMDS) at room temperature. Special attention is focused on the edge type (zigzag or armchair) and nanostructure size dependence of conductivity for heat. The consequences suggest that the thermal conductivity of zigzag edge has been higher than that of armchair, which is because of the higher phonon group velocities. Furthermore, thermal conductivity shows a rising tendency, when the model is calculated from length of 21.84 nm to 43.78 nm. The result indicates that the thermal property performs a strong dependence on nanostructure size which is less than phonon mean free path (775 nm). Our research highlights the significance of structure attribute relationships together with providing useful guideline in calculations for nanosize devices thermal management.