Isotope Effect on the Thermal Conductivity of Graphene

TL;DR

This study investigates how varying isotope concentrations in graphene affect its thermal conductivity, revealing a significant reduction that enables tuning of thermal properties for nanoelectronic applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates that isotope doping can effectively reduce graphene's thermal conductivity by up to 80%, providing a new method to control thermal properties without altering atomic structure.

Findings

Thermal conductivity varies with isotope concentration and crystal orientation.

Maximum reduction of about 80% in thermal conductivity with isotope mixing.

Potential for tuning graphene's thermal properties for device applications.

Abstract

The thermal conductivity (TC) of isolated graphene with different concentrations of isotopes (C13) is studied with equilibrium molecular dynamics method at 300K. In the limit of pure C12 or C13 graphene, TC of graphene in zigzag and armchair directions are ~630 W/mK and ~1000W/mK, respectively. We find that the TC of graphene can be maximally reduced by ~80%, in both armchair and zigzag directions, when a random distribution of C12 and C13 is assumed at different doping concentrations. Therefore, our simulation results suggest an effective way to tune the TC of graphene without changing its atomic and electronic structure, thus yielding a promising application for nanoelectronics and thermoelectricity of graphene based nano-device.