Effect of vacancy defects on thermal conductivity of single-walled carbon nanotubes

The existence of structure defects can be influence to properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Effect of vacancy defects on heat conduction in CNTs is revealed by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations. The thermal conductivity of (6,6) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with various numbers of vacancy defects is investigated in this work. It is demonstrated that the thermal conductivity of SWCNTs with vacancies is lower than that of perfect SWCNTs. Thermal conductivity of SWCNTs deceases with increasing concentration of vacancy defects, it is noted that thermal conductivity of SWCNTs can be a 45% decreases with 0.16% vacancy defects at 300K. It is also illustrated that the thermal conductivity of SWCNTs decreases with the increasing temperature.