Tunable thermal conductivity in carbon allotrope sheets: Role of acetylenic linkages

The versatility of carbon in forming the hybridization states allows one to design more carbon allotropes with various fascinating properties by replacing some aromatic bonds with acetylenic linkages. We investigate thermal conductivities of carbon allotrope sheets with different configurations by nonequilibrium molecular dynamic simulations. It is found that the acetylenic linkages not only considerably reduce thermal conductivity but also can effectively tune thermal conductivity through the various bonding methods. We suggest that the structure of stripes of benzene rings transversely bonded with the acetylenic linkages can potentially be one of high thermoelectric materials. We find that the reason for the manipulation of thermal conductivity by the acetylenic linkage can be attributed to the strong localizations of phonon modes that result in the reduced phonon group velocity and the shortened lifetime of phonons. It is also observed that thermal conductivity of graphyne sheet shows a power-law divergence with respect to the length. We propose a new approach to manipulating thermal conductivities in the carbon allotropes through the assembling of acetylenic linkages. Our findings conclusively clarify the role of acetylenic linkages in thermal transport and offer some valuable insights into the exploration of new thermoelectric materials as well as the experimental control of heat flux.