Thermal Rectification In Asymmetric Graphene Ribbons

TL;DR

This study demonstrates significant thermal rectification in asymmetric graphene ribbons through molecular dynamics simulations, highlighting their potential for practical thermal device applications.

Contribution

The paper reveals that asymmetric graphene ribbons exhibit high thermal rectification ratios, surpassing nanotube-based rectifiers, and discusses how geometry influences rectification performance.

Findings

High thermal rectification ratio in asymmetric graphene ribbons

Rectification ratio depends on vertex angle and length

Graphene ribbons outperform nanotube rectifiers in scale

Abstract

In this paper, heat flux in graphene nano ribbons has been studied by using molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the heat flux runs preferentially along the direction of decreasing width, which demonstrates significant thermal rectification effect in the asymmetric graphene ribbons. The dependence of rectification ratio on the vertex angle and the length are also discussed. Compared to the carbon nanotube based one-dimensional thermal rectifier, graphene nano ribbons have much higher rectification ratio even in large scale. Our results demonstrate that asymmetric graphene ribbon might be a promising structure for practical thermal (phononics) device.