Unusually High Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes

Combining equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations with accurate carbon potentials, we determine the thermal conductivity λ of carbon nanotubes and its dependence on temperature. Our results suggest an unusually high value, λ≈6600 W/m K, for an isolated (10,10) nanotube at room temperature, comparable to the thermal conductivity of a hypothetical isolated graphene monolayer or diamond. Our results suggest that these high values of λ are associated with the large phonon mean free paths in these systems; substantially lower values are predicted and observed for the basal plane of bulk graphite.