Role of carbon nanotube on the interfacial thermal resistance: A molecular dynamics approach

Very high thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube (CNT) makes it an obvious choice in electronic cooling applications. But at the nanoscale, these CNTs face a limitation due to the interfacial thermal resistance commonly known as Kapitza resistance, prevailing between the carbon nanotube and coolant molecules at the solid-liquid boundary. Vibrational mismatch at the interface gives rise to the Kapitza resistance which plays a dominating role in the heat transfer process. Current work puts an effort to investigate the impact of CNT diameter on the interfacial resistance between nanotube and water molecules through molecular dynamics. Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed using armchair single walled CNTs. Beginning with the initial configuration, the system of CNT and water molecules is equilibrated at 300 K and 1 atm. The temperature of the CNT is raised to 700 K and then allowed to relax in a bath of water molecules. The time constant of the CNT temperature response is determined based on the lumped capacitance analysis which is then used to compute the interfacial resistance. Present study illustrates that the interfacial thermal resistance is increases as the diameter of the single walled carbon nanotube increases. Therefore, in electronic cooling applications, CNT of smaller diameters should be preferred owing to its lower values of interfacial thermal resistance.