Layer dependency of in-plane thermal conductivity in graphene/hBN van der Waals heterostructures: a molecular dynamics study

Due to their excellent in-plane thermal transport properties, graphene (G), hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), and their heterostructures have broad application prospects in the field of thermal management. The in-plane thermal conductivity (TC) of G/hBN van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) method were investigated in this study. The results show that the TC of G/hBN vdW heterostructures is up to similar to 384 Wm(-1) K-1 at 300 K, an increase of similar to 16% compared to that of monolayer hBN. The TC of multilayer hBN is increased by up to similar to 60% with the addition of 6 layers of graphene. The effect of interlayer coupling strength on the TC of G/hBN vdW heterostructures is related to the number of layers and vertical thermal transport. The TC of the G/hBN vdW heterostructures is decreased by similar to 30-36% from 300 to 500 K. This work provides valuable references for the application of graphene and hBN in electronic devices to solve thermal management problems.

Automated summary

Due to their excellent in-plane thermal transport properties, graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, and their heterostructures have great potential in thermal management applications. This study investigated the in-plane thermal conductivity of G/hBN van der Waals heterostructures and found that the TC of G/hBN vdW heterostructures increased by 16% compared to monolayer hBN. The addition of graphene increased the TC of multilayer hBN by 60%. The interlayer coupling strength affected the TC of G/hBN vdW heterostructures, which was influenced by the number of layers and vertical thermal transport.