The thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes with Stone-Wales defects was investigated using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. The axial temperature and the thermal conductivity of the carbon nanotubes with one or more Stone-Wales defects were simulated and compared with perfect ones. The influences of defect density, length, chirality of tubes and the ambient temperature were analyzed. It was demonstrated that a sharp jump in the temperature profile and a higher local thermal resistance occurred at defect positions, which resulted in lower values for the thermal conductivity of a nanotube with defects. As the number of Stone-Wales defects increased, the thermal conductivity decreased; no matter what the defect, the thermal conductivity of armchair/longer carbon nanotubes was higher than that of zig-zag/shorter ones. The armchair/shorter carbon nanotubes were more sensitive to defects than zig-zag/longer ones.

Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes with Stone-Wales Defects. J.Peng, Y.H.Feng, W.Li, X.X.Zhang: Journal of Engineering Thermophysics, 2010, 31[11], 1901-4