Thermal boundary conduction between a single-walled carbon nanotube and surrounding material

The thermal boundary resistance between a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) and surrounding argon has been investigated by using molecular dynamics simulations. With a nonstationary approach, the thermal boundary resistance was quantified for a wide range of temperatures and argon densities, which covers various argon phases i.e., gas, liquid, solid and supercritical phases. The results show that, when the surrounding argon is in fluid phase, thermal boundary resistance is determined by the local density of the argon layer adjacent to the SWNT independently of the phase. On the other hand, when the surrounding material is solid, the modal thermal energy transfer manifests, which contributes to the density effect on the thermal boundary resistance.