TY - JOUR
T1 - Intrinsic thermal conductivities of BC3-C3N superlattice nanoribbons
T2 - A molecular dynamics study
AU - Mashhadzadeh, Amin Hamed
AU - Farzadian, Omid
AU - Dehaghani, Maryam Zarghami
AU - Molaei, Fatemeh
AU - Spitas, Christos
AU - Nouranian, Sasan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Superlattice nanostructures enable controllable thermal conductivity minimization in nanodevices for thermoelectric applications. This is especially true regarding recently developed carbon nitride (C3N) and boron carbide (BC3) nanostructures. In this study, we explored phonon heat transport in a superlattice nanoribbon with C3N and BC3 domains using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulation. Specifically, we investigated the impacts of changing the unit cell length, nanoribbon length, average temperature, and temperature difference between the hot source and cold sink on the thermal conductivity of the nanoribbon. Based on our results, the value of the intrinsic thermal conductivity (k∞) reaches a minimum of 206 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature for a superlattice nanoribbon unit cell length of 8.5 nm. At infinite total length, the minimum thermal conductivity obtained for the BC3-C3N superlattice nanoribbon is about 40 % and 25 % of the thermal conductivities of pristine BC3 and C3N nanoribbons, respectively. The observed minimum thermal conductivity in the nanoribbons is attributed to the phonons transitioning from coherent to incoherent transport, where the unit cell length is comparable to the phonon coherence length. The results of this work provide atomistic insights into the development of low-thermal-conductivity nanomaterials for thermal insulation applications.
AB - Superlattice nanostructures enable controllable thermal conductivity minimization in nanodevices for thermoelectric applications. This is especially true regarding recently developed carbon nitride (C3N) and boron carbide (BC3) nanostructures. In this study, we explored phonon heat transport in a superlattice nanoribbon with C3N and BC3 domains using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulation. Specifically, we investigated the impacts of changing the unit cell length, nanoribbon length, average temperature, and temperature difference between the hot source and cold sink on the thermal conductivity of the nanoribbon. Based on our results, the value of the intrinsic thermal conductivity (k∞) reaches a minimum of 206 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature for a superlattice nanoribbon unit cell length of 8.5 nm. At infinite total length, the minimum thermal conductivity obtained for the BC3-C3N superlattice nanoribbon is about 40 % and 25 % of the thermal conductivities of pristine BC3 and C3N nanoribbons, respectively. The observed minimum thermal conductivity in the nanoribbons is attributed to the phonons transitioning from coherent to incoherent transport, where the unit cell length is comparable to the phonon coherence length. The results of this work provide atomistic insights into the development of low-thermal-conductivity nanomaterials for thermal insulation applications.
KW - Boron carbide
KW - Carbon nitride
KW - Nanoribbon
KW - Superlattice
KW - Thermal conductivity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104526
DO - 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104526
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139070793
SN - 2352-4928
VL - 33
JO - Materials Today Communications
JF - Materials Today Communications
M1 - 104526
ER -