First-principles analysis of lattice thermal conductivity in monolayer and bilayer graphene

Abstract

Using calculations from first principles, we investigate the lattice thermal conductivity of ideal monolayer and bilayer graphenes. Our result estimates that the intrinsic thermal conductivity of both materials is around $2200\text{ }\text{W}\text{ }{\text{m}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }{\text{K}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ at 300 K, a value close to the one observed theoretically and experimentally in graphite along the basal plane. It also illustrates the expected ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ dependence at higher temperatures. The little variation between monolayer and bilayer thermal conductivities suggests that the number of layers may not affect significantly the in-plane thermal properties of these systems. The intrinsic thermal conductivity also appears to be nearly isotropic for graphene.