Unusually High Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes

Combining equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations with accurate carbon potentials, we determine the thermal conductivity $\lambda$ of carbon nanotubes and its dependence on temperature. Our results suggest an unusually high value, $\lambda \approx 6600\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{m}\mathrm{K}$, 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 $\lambda$ 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.