Carbon Nanotube-based Super Nanotube: Tailorable Thermal Conductivity at Three-dimensional

TL;DR

This study uses in silico methods to demonstrate that the thermal conductivity of three-dimensional carbon nanotube-based super nanotubes can be tailored by adjusting structural parameters, aiding future nanomaterial design.

Contribution

It reveals how structural variations influence thermal conductivity in super nanotubes, providing fundamental insights for engineering applications.

Findings

Thermal conductivity varies with connecting carbon rings.

Longer SWNTs and larger diameters reduce thermal conductivity.

Inverse thermal conductivity correlates linearly with inverse length.

Abstract

The advancements of nanomaterials or nanostructures have enabled the possibility of fabricating multifunctional materials that hold great promises in engineering applications. The carbon nanotube (CNT)-based nanostructure is one representative building block for such multifunctional materials. Based on a series of in silico studies, we report the tailorability of the thermal conductivity of a three-dimensional CNT-based nanostructure, i.e., the single wall CNT (SWNT)-based super nanotube (ST). It is shown that the thermal conductivity of STs varies with different connecting carbon rings, and the ST with longer constituent SWNTs and larger diameter yield to a smaller thermal conductivity. Further results reveal that the inverse of the ST thermal conductivity exhibits a good linear relationship with the inverse of its length. Particularly, it is found that the thermal conductivity exhibits an approximately proportional relationship with the inverse of the temperature, but appears insensitive to the axial strain due to its Poisson ratio. These results, in the one hand, provide a fundamental understanding of the thermal transport properties of the super carbon nanotubes conductivities of ST, and in the other hand shed lights on their future design or fabrication and engineering applications.