3.1. In-plane thermal conductivity
In order to check the accuracy of the NEMD simulation results for the k
ip of BLG, we conducted simulations following the dimensions and operating conditions outlined in the study by Nie et al. [
38]. The investigated bilayer zigzag graphene had a size of 22×10 nm
2 with a 0.35 nm interlayer distance. The comparison of results is presented in
Table 1 for different temperatures. We performed error analysis using four different heat fluxes across the simulation region. As indicated in
Table 1, the k
ip calculated in this study exhibits only slight deviations from the findings of Nie et al. [
38], with a maximum error of 3.46%.
In addition, comparing the range of k
ip obtained for other sizes of BLG, as reported in the upcoming sections, with the values from prior studies, indicates that our NEMD simulation results are consistent with the findings of previous research [
36,
39].
In our study, we investigated BLG sheets with dimensions of 10×10 nm2 and an interlayer distance of 0.335 nm for the calculation of kip. To quantify the impacts of various factors on the kip of BLG, we varied several key parameters such as length, width, temperature, strain, and edge shapes.
Figure 3 illustrates the influence of sample length on the k
ip of BLG with armchair and zigzag edges at 300 K. The thermal conductivities of 10 nm × 10 nm zigzag and armchair BLG are estimated to be 203.6 W/m.K and 124.3 W/m.K, respectively. Contrary to bulk materials, where thermal conductivity is typically size-independent, the results in
Figure 3 show that the thermal conductivity of BLG increases with the length of the BLG sheets. The average mean free path of the primary heat carriers, namely acoustic phonons, is in the range of 100-600 nm in graphene [
47]. In the present study, the simulation domain is not sufficiently extensive to enable dominant phonons to undergo umklapp scattering. Previous reports indicate that phonons in graphene can travel without scattering, exhibiting ballistic transport [
48]. As a result, it is the heat source and the heat sink that ultimately limit the phonon mean free path, leading to the observed increase in thermal conductivity with the sample length. This behavior is in agreement with previously reported experimental findings, where the k
ip of SLG was observed to increase with the length of the graphene sheet [
19]. The length-dependent thermal conductivity of 2D materials is not limited to cases where the sample size is comparable to the average phonon mean free path; it’s observed even when sample lengths significantly exceed the average phonon mean free path [
19]. However, for sample lengths exceeding the average phonon mean free path, the phenomenon can be attributed to the 2D nature of phonons in graphene.
Furthermore,
Figure 3 shows that the thermal conductivity of the BLG with a zigzag edge is 30-40% higher than that of the armchair edge. Previous studies using various methods, such as MD [
24,
49,
50], Green’s function method [
51], or solving the Boltzmann transport equation [
52], have shown that the thermal conductivity of graphene with zigzag edges is greater than that of armchair graphene, with reported differences ranging from 15% to 50%. Similar trends have been observed in other 2D nanostructures as well [
53,
54]. The dependence of thermal conductivity on edge shape in finite-sized graphene sheets can be attributed to several factors, including different phonon scattering rates at the armchair and zigzag edges [
49,
50,
52], edge roughness scattering [
52], and phonon localization at edges [
24,
50]. However, Wang et al. [
24] argued that edge roughness scattering should be excluded as the cause for the large thermal conductivity discrepancy in graphene with different edge shapes. They supported their argument with a cross-sectional decomposition of the steady-state heat flux in graphene nanoribbons, revealing a significant suppression of thermal transport at the edges, particularly in armchair configurations. Their phonon spectra analyses and observations of nonuniform heat flux distribution suggested that the strong edge localization of phonons in regions near and at the edges, particularly in armchair edges, is the primary factor responsible for the observed thermal conductivity discrepancy between armchair and zigzag edges [
24].
Figure 4 illustrates the effect of BLG width on the kip for three different BLG lengths. It is evident from this figure that the thermal conductivity of BLG sheets with zigzag edges is higher at very small widths, particularly for the smallest BLG lengths (10 nm). This phenomenon could be linked to the limited number of phonons present in the system at these small sizes. This scarcity results in fewer available phonon-phonon combinations that satisfy the momentum and energy conservation rules for scattering, leading to reduced phonon-phonon scattering. The higher thermal conductivity at very small widths aligns with findings from other research [
37], where the thermal conductivity of BLG becomes width-independent for widths greater than 6 nm at 300 K.
In addition,
Figure 4 reveals that the width of armchair BLG sheets does not exhibit any noticeable effect on their thermal conductivity. These findings are ascribed to the influence of periodic boundary conditions in the simulation, consistent with prior research studies [
55].
Figure 5 presents the effect of temperature variation on the thermal conductivity of zigzag and armchair BLG, covering the temperature range from 300 to 600 K for three different BLG lengths. As it has been proved that MD simulations are not well-suited for accurately predicting the thermal conductivity of graphene with temperature below 300 K [
38,
56], hence we focus on temperatures above this threshold. Based on this figure, the thermal conductivity of BLG decreases with increasing temperature, showing a slightly different rate for armchair and zigzag configurations. For a 10 nm× 10 nm sample, the thermal conductivity of the zigzag configuration drops from 203.6 W/m.K to 170.8 W/m.K as the temperature rises from 300 K to 600 K, while for the armchair configuration, it decreases from 124.3 W/m.K to 111.1 W/m.K. The behavior of thermal conductivity for BLG follows a pattern similar to that of bulk dielectric material, decreasing as the temperature rises beyond room temperature. This temperature dependence at high temperatures is attributed to umklapp phonon-phonon scattering. Experimental studies have also addressed the effect of temperature on the thermal conductivity of BLG, with results confirming that BLG’s thermal conductivity decreases as the temperature rises from 300 to 600 K [
57,
58].
Moreover, as observed in
Figure 5, zigzag configurations consistently exhibit higher thermal conductivity than the armchair configurations at all temperatures, as discussed previously.
Prior research has demonstrated the substantial influence of strain on modulating the thermal conductivity of various 2D materials. The application of strain presents a method to precisely tune the thermal conductivity of materials, as evidenced by these investigations [
20,
34,
59].
Figure 6 illustrates the impact of uniaxial tensile strain on the thermal conductivity of armchair and zigzag BLG sheets. The range of strain considered in this study spans from 0 to 12.5%. This figure demonstrates that increasing strain can result in a decrease in thermal conductivity for both armchair and zigzag configurations. This trend is in good agreement with previous NEMD simulations [
59] and experimental studies [
20] conducted on SLG confirming the sensitivity of thermal conductivity to tensile strain. The decrease in thermal conductivity with tensile strains can be ascribed to the increase in lattice anharmonicity and the reduction of the stiffness tensor.
Furthermore, it’s noteworthy that the thermal conductivity of zigzag BLG demonstrates a higher sensitivity to tensile strain compared to armchair BLG. For a tensile strain of 12.5%, the thermal conductivity reduction is 51% in 10 nm, 52% in 14 nm, and 45% in 18 nm compared to the strain-free values for the zigzag BLG. On the other hand, the thermal conductivity reduction is 29% in 10 nm, 32% in 14 nm, and 30% in 18 nm armchair BLG sheets. This behavior is in agreement with the findings in reference [
59], where the thermal conductivity of zigzag graphene nanoribbons exhibited greater sensitivity to the tensile strain compared to armchair graphene nanoribbons. The different sensitivity observed can be attributed to the difference in bond orientation along the direction of loading. Indeed, the effect of tensile strain on the thermal conductivity of graphene with zigzag and armchair edges has been the subject of debate due to the presence of contradictory findings. In another MD simulation, it was observed that the thermal conductivity of armchair graphene nanoribbons exhibited greater sensitivity to tensile strain compared to that of zigzag graphene nanoribbons [
60]. This heightened sensitivity was attributed to the greater stress and larger deformation of carbon-carbon bonds along the tensile direction in armchair graphene nanoribbons than zigzag graphene nanoribbons under the same level of strain [
60]. Many of these discrepancies can be attributed to computational details, such as the specific interatomic potentials used in simulations and sample size. The true behavior will remain uncertain until relevant experimental results become available.
3.2. Cross-plane thermal conductivity
The characteristics of cross-plane thermal conduction differ significantly from those of in-plane conduction in certain materials. For example, in the case of graphite, the k
cp has been shown to be two to three orders of magnitude lower than its k
ip [
61]. The thermal properties of graphene are significantly influenced by those of graphite, given that graphene can retain the anisotropic nature of the graphite crystal. Previous measurements indicate that the cross-plane thermal properties of few-layered graphene are also considerably smaller than its in-plane thermal properties [
23,
62].
The effects of temperature on the cross-plane thermal conductance of BLG are illustrated in Figure 7. The graph shows that the cross-plane thermal conductance of BLG at 300 K is 162.3 MW/m².K. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no studies conducted on the thermal conductance of the graphene/graphene interface within BLG. Wei et al. [
63] studied the cross-plane thermal resistance in multilayer graphene structures using NEMD simulations, reporting a value of 4.1×10
-9 m².K/W for the cross-plane thermal resistance of 6-layer graphene at 300 K, as shown in Figure 4 of Ref.[
63], which corresponds to a cross-plane thermal conductance of 244 MW/m².K. In another research, Ni et al. [
64] calculated the cross-plane thermal resistance of 5-layer graphene as 4.83×10
-9 m².K/W using equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, corresponding to a cross-plane thermal conductance of 207 MW/m².K
. In addition, Ding et al. [
65] explored interfacial thermal conductance in graphene/MoS
2 heterostructures using NEMD simulations. For 7-layer graphene, the interfacial thermal conductance at the graphene/graphene interface was calculated as 212.6 MW/m².K, as shown in Table 2 of Ref. [
65]. Considering the strong layer number dependence of cross-plane thermal resistance/conductance in multilayer graphene structures and the documented increase in cross-plane thermal conductance with layer number [
63], it is reasonable that our obtained cross-plane thermal conductance for BLG is lower than that of 5-, 6-, and 7-layer graphene. It’s worth highlighting that when few-layer graphene samples on a substrate are studied, the cross-plane thermal resistance does not significantly change with the number of graphene layers [
23,
62], indicating that the thermal resistance between graphene and its substrate has a more notable effect than the resistance between individual graphene sheets.
Our simulation results reveal that the corresponding k
cp of BLG at 300 K is 0.054 W/m·K, which closely aligns with both the reported values of 0.05 W/m·K for BLG (Figure 5 of Ref. [
66]) and 0.07 W/m·K for 6-layer graphene [
63]. These findings highlight that the k
cp is significantly lower than the in-plane results by approximately four orders of magnitude. This anisotropic behavior arises from the high k
ip of graphene, which is ascribed to the strong covalent sp
2 bonding between adjacent carbon atoms. This type of bonding is known to be one of the strongest in nature, marginally stronger than the sp
3 bonds in diamond. In contrast, the adjacent graphene layers in multilayer graphene are linked by weak van der Waals interactions.
Furthermore,
Figure 7 demonstrates that the cross-plane thermal conductance of BLG decreases with rising temperatures in the range of 300 to 600 K. This trend suggests that temperature impacts the cross-plane thermal conductance similarly to the k
ip, which monotonically decreases with increasing temperature. This observation aligns qualitatively with prior research on the temperature effect on cross-plane heat transfer in few-layered graphene [
63,
66,
67]. The underlying physics behind this phenomenon lies in the dominance of phonon scattering in graphene heat transfer. Consequently, heat transfer should decrease as the temperature rises, independent of the direction of heat transport. In addition, it’s evident from
Figure 7 that the temperature-induced reduction is not particularly pronounced: the thermal conductance at 600 K is approximately 16% of that at 300 K, consistent with the behavior reported for 5-layer graphene, where cross-plane resistance was found to be almost unaffected by temperature [
64].