Thermal conductivity of carbon nanoring linked graphene sheets: A molecular dynamics investigation*

Improving the thermal conduction across graphene sheets is of great importance for their applications in thermal management. In this paper, thermal transport across a hybrid structure formed by two graphene nanoribbons and carbon nanorings (CNRs) was investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The effects of linker diameter, number, and height on thermal conductivity of the CNRs–graphene hybrid structures were studied respectively, and the CNRs were found effective in transmitting the phonon modes of GNRs. The hybrid structure with 2 linkers showed the highest thermal conductivity of 68.8 Wm−1K−1. Our work presents important insight into fundamental principles governing the thermal conduction across CNR junctions and provides useful guideline for designing CNR–graphene structure with superior thermal conductivity.