Thermal conductivity of deformed carbon nanotubes

We investigate the thermal conductivity of four types of deformed carbon nanotubes by using the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method. It is reported that various deformations have different influences on the thermal properties of carbon nanotubes. For bending carbon nanotubes, the thermal conductivity is independent of the bending angle. However, the thermal conductivity increases lightly with xy-distortion and decreases rapidly with z-distortion. The thermal conductivity does not change with the screw ratio before the breaking of carbon nanotubes, but it decreases sharply after the critical screw ratio. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3573509]