Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes

Asegun Henry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Photo of Asegun Henry

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are known to exhibit excellent mechanical and transport properties. In particular, the thermal conductivity of individual CNTs may be higher than that of any of known material. Although there has been a considerable amount of study devoted to measurement and prediction of CNT thermal conductivity, many questions remain. In this study we implemented a new interatomic potential to the large-scale atomic/molecular massively parallel simulator (LAMMPS), that will allow for the study of multi-walled nanotubes. We intend to use equilibirum molecular dynamics simulations to determine reliable (converged) thermal conductivity values for a wide variety of CNTs. This study is intended to address the temperature, chirality, diameter and length dependencies that have been debated in the literature.

Abstract Author(s): Asegun Henry