Orientation dependent thermal conductivity in graphyne nanoribbons

•The thermal conductivity of graphyne nanoribbons is investigated.•The strong orientation dependence is observed in the thermal conductivity.•The underlying mechanism of the orientation dependence has been disclosed.

We investigate the thermal conductivity in the armchair and zigzag graphyne nanoribbons by using the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method. The results show that a strong orientation dependence of the thermal conductivity is observed. The thermal conductivity in the armchair graphyne nanoribbon is larger than that in the zigzag graphyne nanoribbon with the same width and length at room temperature. Furthermore, the orientation dependence is increased when the width of the graphyne nanoribbons decreases. We disclose the underlying mechanism for this intrinsic orientation dependence to be the more phonon transport channels and higher phonon velocity in armchair graphyne nanoribbon throughout the overall frequency range.

Graphical abstractVariation of the thermal conductivity with (a) the temperature for the 13-AGYNR (11-ZGYNR) and (b) the widths for different GYNRs. Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide