Phonon thermal conductivity of monolayer MoS2 sheet and nanoribbons

We investigated the thermal conduction of monolayer MoS2 sheet and nanoribbons using molecular dynamics simulations. Room temperature thermal conductivity of monolayer MoS2 is found to be 1.35 W/mK, which is three orders of magnitude lower than that of graphene. In contrast to the remarkable size effect observed in graphene nanoribbons, the thermal conductivity of MoS2 nanoribbons is insensitive to width (3-16 nm), length (4-111 nm), and the type of edge, which are explained by the local heat flux analysis and phonon scattering mechanisms. The low thermal conductivity together with reported high Seebeck coefficient opens up the possibility to realize MoS2-based two-dimensional thermoelectric devices. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.