Decomposition of the Thermal Boundary Resistance across Carbon Nanotube-Graphene Junctions to Different Mechanisms.

Three different mechanisms are identified to contribute to thermal resistances across a carbon nanotube-graphene junction: material mismatch, nonplanar junction, and defects. To isolate the contributions of each mechanism, we have designed five types of junctions and performed nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that the contributions from the three mechanisms are similar, each at around 2.5 × 10-11 m2 K/W. The relations between thermal boundary resistance and both defect number and turning angle at the interface are also studied.