Thermal transport engineering in single layered graphene sheets via MD simulations: On the effect of nickel coating.

Abstract The main aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the coating layer on the thermal properties of Ni-coated graphene sheets. In this regard, non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out to provide detailed information on the thermal properties of Ni-coated graphene sheets. It has been observed that with increasing coating ratio to 0.5 % , the thermal conductivity reduces to only about 60 % of the corresponding value for the pristine graphene. However, by increasing the coating ratio, thermal conductivity converged to an asymptotic value at the coating ratio equals to 2 %. Keeping this coating percentage fixed, nickel atoms are also distributed on the graphene sheet in different patterns such as random half-side coating, spectral, agglomerated, checkered and strips. It is revealed that by using different nickel coating patterns, thermal properties of the pristine graphene can be highly tunable. Highlights • Thermal conductivity of Ni-coated graphene utilized in lead-free solders is studied. • Effect of Ni coverage on the thermal conductivity of graphene is examined. • Ni coating ratio of 0.5% reduces the thermal conductivity about 60%. • Increasing the ratio to 2%, thermal conductivity converges to an asymptotic value. • Thermal properties of graphene can be highly tunable by different coating patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]