Thermal conductance in graphene nanoribbons modulated by defects and alternating boron-nitride structures

The thermal transport properties of phonons in zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) modulated by defect and alternating boron-nitride structure (BNS) are studied by nonequilibrium Greens function (NEGF) formalism combined with first-principles calculations of density-functional theory with local density approximation. Our calculations show that the thermal conductance in ZGNR with BNS is higher than that in ZGNR with cavity. The grouping between defect and BNS can induce high frequency phonon blocking effect, and the blocking effect depends on the structure parameter of defect and BNS. The grouping can modulate the transmission rate of phonons and thermal conductance on a large scale. A brief analysis of these results is given. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.