Enhanced thermoelectric performance of graphene nanoribbons

The thermoelectric properties of a series of armchair and zigzag graphene nanoribbons with narrow width are examined using nonequilibrium Green function method and molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that these nanoribbons are rather stable when the edge atoms are passivated by hydrogen and those with armchair edges exhibit much better thermoelectric performance than their zigzag counterparts. Moreover, the corresponding ZT value increases with decreasing ribbon width. By optimizing the doping level, a room temperature ZT of 6.0 can be achieved for the narrowest armchair nanoribbon. The significantly enhanced ZT value makes armchair graphene nanoribbon a promising candidate for thermoelectric applications. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3689780]