Carbon nanotube-based super nanotubes : tunable thermal conductivity in three dimensions

Haifei Zhan, John M. Bell, Yuantong Gu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Advances in nanomaterials/nanostructures offer the possibility of fabricating multifunctional materials for use in engineering applications. Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based nanostructures are a representative building block for these multifunctional materials. Based on a series of in silico studies, we investigated the possibility of tuning the thermal conductivity of a three-dimensional CNT-based nanostructure: a single-walled CNT-based super-nanotube. The thermal conductivity of the super-nanotubes was shown to vary with different connecting carbon rings and super-nanotubes with longer constituent single-walled CNTs and larger diameters had a smaller thermal conductivity. The inverse of the thermal conductivity of the super-nanotubes showed a good linear relationship with the inverse of the length. The thermal conductivity was approximately proportional to the inverse of the temperature, but was insensitive to the axial strain as a result of the Poisson ratio. These results provide a fundamental understanding of the thermal conductivity of the super-nanotubes and will guide their future design/fabrication and engineering applications.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)48164-48168
Number of pages5
JournalRSC Advances
Volume5
Issue number60
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • carbon nanotubes
  • nanostructures
  • thermal conductivity

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