Isotope Effect on the Thermal Conductivity of Graphene

Abstract

The thermal conductivity (TC) of isolated graphene with different concentrations of isotope (C(13)) is studied with equilibrium molecular dynamics method at 300 K. In the limit of pure C(12) or C(13) graphene, TC of graphene in zigzag and armchair directions are similar to 630 W/mK and similar to 1000W/mK, respectively. We find that the TC of graphene can be maximally reduced by similar to 80%, in both armchair and zigzag directions, when a random distribution of C(12) and C(13) is assumed at different doping concentrations. Therefore, our simulation results suggest an effective way to tune the TC of graphene without changing its atomic and electronic structure, thus yielding a promising application for nanoelectronics and thermoelectricity of graphene-based nano device