Thermoelectric properties of gamma-graphyne nanoribbons and nanojunctions

Using the Nonequilibrium Green's function approach, we investigate the thermoelectric properties of gamma-graphyne nanostructures. Compared with the graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), gamma-graphyne nanoribbons (GYNRs) are found to possess superior thermoelectric performance. Its thermoelectric figure of merit ZT is about 3 similar to 13 times larger than that in the GNRs. Meanwhile, the results show that the thermoelectric efficiency of GYNRs decreases as the ribbon width increases, while it increases monotonically with temperature. For the gamma-graphyne nanojunctions (GYNJs), the value of ZT increases dramatically as the width discrepancy between the left and right leads becomes more obvious. This improvement is mainly originated from the fact that the enhanced thermopower and degraded thermal conductance (including the electron and phonon contributions) outweigh the reduction of electronic conductance. Moreover, it is found that the thermoelectric behavior of GYNJs also depends on the geometric shape, which is explained by analyzing the unique width distribution of phonon contributed thermal conductance of GYNRs. These findings qualify gamma-graphyne as a promising candidate for thermoelectric applications and provide useful guideline for enhancing the thermoelectric performance in experiment. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.