Tailoring Auxetic and Contractile Graphene to Achieve Interface Structures with Fully Mechanically Controllable Thermal Transports

Y Gao and WZ Yang and BX Xu, ADVANCED MATERIALS INTERFACES, 4, 1700278 (2017).

DOI: 10.1002/admi.201700278

Graphene is considered as an ideal material candidate for next- generation electronic devices due to its high carrier mobility while the associated thermal management has become a critical barrier. Designing graphene whose thermal transport properties can be tuned through external fields is highly desired. Here, an auxetic graphene (AG) and a contractile graphene (CG) are created and a conceptual design of thermal controllable graphene heterostructures is demonstrated by tailoring them together. Using computational simulations, it is shown that the thermal conductivity of graphene heterostructures can be regulated by patterning AG and CG unit cells with different interface properties under a uniaxial tensile strain. Analyses of both mechanical deformation and vibrational spectra indicate that the thermal transport properties of graphene heterostructures are highly dependent on their mechanical stress distribution, and also rely on the interfaces that are parallel with the directions of mechanical loadings. Theoretical models that integrate the contributions of mechanical loading and patterned- interfaces are developed to quantitatively describe the thermal conductivity of graphene heterostructures. Good agreement of thermal conductivity between theoretical predictions and extensive simulations is obtained. These designs and findings are expected to pave a new route to seek interface-mediated stretchable thermal electronics with mechanically controllable performance.

Return to Publications page