Effect of Nanopores on the Phonon Conductivity of Crystalline CoSb3: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to investigate the effect of nanometer-size pores on the phonon conductivity of single-crystal bulk CoSb3. The cylindrical pores are uniformly distributed along two vertical principal crystallographic directions of a square lattice. Because pore diameter and porosity are two key factors that could affect the performance of the materials, they were varied individually in the ranges a0–6a0 and 0.1–5%, respectively, where a0 is the lattice constant of CoSb3. The simulation results indicate that the phonon conductivity of nanoporous CoSb3 is significantly lower than that of no-pore CoSb3. The reduction of phonon conductivity in this simulation was consistent with the ballistic–diffusive microscopic effective medium model, demonstrating the ballistic character of phonon transport when the phonon mean-free-path is comparable with or larger than the pore size. Reducing pore diameter or increasing porosity are alternative means of effective reduction of the thermal conductivity of CoSb3. These results are expected to provide a useful basis for the design of high-performance skutterudites.