Tuning the thermal conductivity of multi-layer graphene with interlayer bonding and tensile strain

TY Guo and ZD Sha and XJ Liu and G Zhang and TF Guo and QX Pei and YW Zhang, APPLIED PHYSICS A-MATERIALS SCIENCE & PROCESSING, 120, 1275-1281 (2015).

DOI: 10.1007/s00339-015-9373-z

We investigate the thermal conductivity of interlayer-bonded bilayer graphene, trilayer graphene, and pyrolytic graphite using molecular dynamics simulations. We find that interlayer sp(3) bonding greatly reduces the thermal conductivity, with the reduction up to 80 %, depending on the distribution and coverage of sp(3) bonds. Besides, we find that tensile strain reduces the thermal conductivity of interlayer- bonded graphene further by up to 50 %. Our findings suggest the possibility of using interlayer sp(3) bonds and tensile strain to tune and manipulate the thermal conductivity of multi-layer graphene, which may be useful in thermal management of graphene-based nanodevices and in thermoelectric applications of graphene.

Return to Publications page