Effect of microstructure on the thermal conductivity of disordered carbon

Computational methods are used to control the degree of structural order in a variety of carbonmaterials containing primarily sp2 bonding. Room-temperature thermal conductivities arecomputed using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. Our results reproduce experimental data foramorphous and glassy car...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Suarez-Martinez, Irene, Marks, Nigel
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Institute of Physics 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14219
Description
Summary:Computational methods are used to control the degree of structural order in a variety of carbonmaterials containing primarily sp2 bonding. Room-temperature thermal conductivities arecomputed using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. Our results reproduce experimental data foramorphous and glassy carbons and confirm previously proposed structural models for vitreouscarbons. An atomistic model is developed for highly oriented thin films seen experimentally, with amaximum computed thermal conductivity of 35 W m1 K1. This value is much higher than thatof the amorphous and glassy structures, demonstrating that the microstructure influences thethermal conductivity more strongly than the density.