(393n) Simulation of Heat Transfer in Double-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Silica

Double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) have been found to be more thermally stable and mechanically stronger than single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) for various applications. [1-3] Our previous work has demonstrated thermal rectification behavior of DWCNTs for heat transfer in the radial direction in vacuum. In other words, the resistance to heat transfer from the inner nanotube to the outer has been found to be smaller than the resistance to heat transfer from the outer to the inner. The expansion/contraction of the two walls of the DWCNT during the heating and/or cooling and the relative rotation of the inner wall versus the outer wall play an important role to heat transfer.[4]  The unanswered question is whether these interesting phenomena are also observed when DWCNTs are imbedded in another medium. In this work, thermal transfer between the walls of DWCNTs surrounded by amorphous silica is studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations to address this question. More importantly, the enhancement of the thermal conductivity of DWCNT-silica nanocomposites by utilizing the thermal rectification behavior will be discussed here.

References

[1]          R. Saito, R. Matsuo, T. Kimura, G. Dresselhaus, and M. S. Dresselhaus, Chemical Physics Letters 348 (2001) 187.

[2]          Y. A. Kim, H. Muramatsu, T. Hayashi, M. Endo, M. Terrones, and M. S. Dresselhaus, Chemical Physics Letters 398 (2004) 87.

[3]          K. Koziol, J. Vilatela, A. Moisala, M. Motta, P. Cunniff, M. Sennett, and A. Windle, Science 318 (2007) 1892.

[4]          K. Bui, H. Nguyen, C. Cousin, A. Striolo, and D. V. Papavassiliou, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 116 (2012) 4449.