Public Release: 

Research could bring new devices that control heat flow

Purdue University


IMAGE: Researchers are proposing a new technology that controls the flow of heat the way electronic devices control electrical current. Triangular graphene nanoribbons (a) are proposed as a new thermal rectifier,... view more

Credit: Purdue University

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Researchers are proposing a new technology that might control the flow of heat the way electronic devices control electrical current, an advance that could have applications in a diverse range of fields from electronics to textiles.


Findings in research using advanced simulations show the triangular or T-shaped structures - if small enough in width - are capable of "thermal rectification," or permitting a greater flow of heat in one direction than in the opposite direction, said Xiulin Ruan, an associate professor in Purdue University's School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center.

Rectification has made possible transistors, diodes and memory circuits central to the semiconductor industry. The new devices are thermal rectifiers that might perform the same function, but with phonons instead of electrical current.

"In most systems, heat flow is equal in both directions, so there are no thermal devices like electrical diodes. However, if we are able to control heat flow like we control electricity using diodes then we can enable a lot of new and exciting thermal devices including thermal switches, thermal transistors, logic gates and memory," said Ruan, whose research group collaborated with a group led by Yong Chen, an associate professor in Purdue's Department of Physics and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "People are just starting to understand how it works, and it is quite far from being used in applications."

Findings are detailed in a research paper that has appeared online in the journal Nano Letters and will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal. The paper was authored by doctoral students Yan Wang, Ajit Vallabhaneni and Jiuning Hu and former doctoral student Bo Qiu; Chen; and Ruan.

The researchers used an advanced simulation method called molecular dynamics to demonstrate thermal rectification in structures called "asymmetric graphene nanoribbons." Molecular dynamics simulations can simulate the vibrations of atoms and predict the heat flow in a material.

Graphene, an extremely thin layer of carbon, is promising for applications in electronics and computers. The triangular structure must be tiny in width to make possible the "lateral confinement" of phonons needed for the effect. Findings also show thermal rectification is not limited to graphene but could be seen in other materials in structures such as pyramidal, trapezoidal or T-shaped designs.

Hu, Ruan, and Chen also published a paper four years ago in the journal Nano Letters, among the first to propose asymmetric graphene nanoribbons as a thermal rectifier in research using the molecular dynamics simulations. Although numerous studies have been devoted to this topic since then, until now researchers did not know the mechanism behind thermal rectification. The new findings show that this mechanism works by restricting vibrations as they travel through the small lateral direction of an asymmetrical structure.


Thermal rectification is not seen in larger triangular-shape structures because they lack lateral confinement. In order for lateral confinement to be produced, the cross section of the structure must be much smaller than the "mean free path" of a phonon, or only a few to hundreds of nanometers depending on the material, Wang said.

"This is the average distance a phonon can travel before it collides with another phonon," he said. However, although the devices must be tiny, they could be linked in series to produce larger structures and better rectification performance. The concept could find uses in "thermal management" applications for computers and electronics, buildings and even clothing.


A potential, although speculative, future application could be thermal transistors. Unlike conventional transistors, thermal transistors would not require the use of silicon, are based on phonons rather than electrons and might make use of the large amount of waste heat that is already generated in most practical electronics, said Chen.



Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709,

Sources: Xiulin Ruan, 765-494-5721,
Yong P. Chen, 765-494-0947,


Researchers are proposing a new technology that controls the flow of heat the way electronic devices control electrical current. Triangular graphene nanoribbons (a) are proposed as a new thermal rectifier, in which the heat flow in one direction is larger than that in the opposite direction. Thermal rectification (b) is not limited to graphene, but can also be seen in other "asymmetric nanostructure materials" including thin films, pyramidal quantum dots, nanocones and triangles. (Purdue University image)

A publication-quality graphic is available at


Phonon Lateral Conﬁnement Enables Thermal Rectiﬁcation in Asymmetric Single-Material Nanostructures
Yan Wang,†,‡ Ajit Vallabhaneni,†,‡ Jiuning Hu,‡,§ Bo Qiu,†,‡ Yong P. Chen,‡,§,∥ and Xiulin Ruan*,†,‡
† School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
‡ Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
§ School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
∥Department of Physics, Purdue University

We show that thermal rectiﬁcation (TR) in asymmetric graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) is originated from phonon conﬁnement in the lateral dimension, which is a fundamentally new mechanism different from that in macroscopic heterojunctions. Our molecular dynamics simulations reveal that, though TR is significant in nanosized asymmetric GNRs, it diminishes at larger width. By solving the heat diffusion equation, we prove that TR is indeed absent in both the total heat transfer rate and local heat ﬂux for bulk-size asymmetric single materials, regardless of the device geometry or the anisotropy of the thermal conductivity. For a deeper understanding of why lateral conﬁnement is needed, we have performed phonon spectra analysis and shown that phonon lateral conﬁnement can enable three possible mechanisms for TR: phonon spectra overlap, inseparable dependence of thermal conductivity on temperature and space, and phonon edge localization, which are essentially related to each other in a complicated manner. Under such guidance, we demonstrate that other asymmetric nanostructures, such as asymmetric nanowires, thin ﬁlms, and quantum dots, of a single material are potentially high-performance thermal rectifiers.

