Abstract
The upper limit of the thermal conductivity and the mechanical strength are predicted for the polyethylene chain, by performing the ab initio calculation and applying the quantum mechanical non-equilibrium Green's function approach. Specially, there are two main findings from our calculation: (1) the thermal conductivity can reach a high value of 310 Wm -1 K -1 in a 100 nm polyethylene chain at room temperature and the thermal conductivity increases with the length of the chain; (2) the Young's modulus in the polyethylene chain is as high as 374.5 GPa, and the polyethylene chain can sustain 32.85 0.05 (ultimate) strain before undergoing structural phase transition into gaseous ethylene.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 124304 |
Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
Volume | 111 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 Jun 15 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all)