Thermal Properties of Graphene, Carbon Nanotubes and Nanostructured Carbon Materials

TL;DR

This paper reviews the thermal and thermoelectric properties of carbon materials, especially graphene and nanotubes, highlighting their exceptional heat conduction capabilities and potential for electronic thermal management.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent experimental results and discusses size-dependent heat conduction phenomena in two-dimensional carbon materials.

Findings

Graphene and nanotubes exhibit extremely high thermal conductivities.

Size effects significantly influence heat conduction in 2D carbon crystals.

Carbon materials have promising applications in electronic thermal management.

Abstract

Recent years witnessed a rapid growth of interest of scientific and engineering communities to thermal properties of materials. Carbon allotropes and derivatives occupy a unique place in terms of their ability to conduct heat. The room-temperature thermal conductivity of carbon materials span an extraordinary large range - of over five orders of magnitude - from the lowest in amorphous carbons to the highest in graphene and carbon nanotubes. I review thermal and thermoelectric properties of carbon materials focusing on recent results for graphene, carbon nanotubes and nanostructured carbon materials with different degrees of disorder. A special attention is given to the unusual size dependence of heat conduction in two-dimensional crystals and, specifically, in graphene. I also describe prospects of applications of graphene and carbon materials for thermal management of electronics.