Reduced thermal conductivity in molecular forests

Abstract

Heat propagation in quasi-one dimensional materials (Q1DMs) often appears paradoxical. While an isolated Q1DM, such as a nanowire, carbon nanotube, or polymer, can exhibit a high thermal conductivity \k{appa}, forests of the same materials show a reduction in \k{appa}. Here, the complex structures of these assemblies have hindered the emergence of a clear molecular picture of this intriguing phenomenon. We combine multiscale (coarse-grained) simulation with the concepts known from polymer physics and thermal transport to unveil a generic (microscopic) picture of \k{appa} reduction in molecular forests. We show that a delicate balance between the bond orientations, the persistence length of the Q1DM and the flexural vibrations govern the knock-down of \k{appa}.

References in corpus (7)

• Unusually High Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes
• Thermal Conductance of an Individual Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube above Room Temperature
• Unified theory of thermal transport in crystals and disordered solids
• Thermal Conductivity of Chirality-Sorted Carbon Nanotube Networks
• One-directional thermal transport in densely aligned single-wall carbon nanotube films
• Elasticity and thermal transport of commodity plastics
• Stress in a polymer brush

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Tuning thermal transport in highly cross-linked polymers by bond induced void engineering
• Thermal conductivity of polymers: A simple matter where complexity matters
• Computing the thermal transport coefficient of neutral amorphous polymers using exact vibrational density of states: Comparison with experiments
• Smart polymer solution and thermal conductivity: How important is an exact polymer conformation?