Due to outstanding electric conductance, copper is widely used as wires in electricity and as interconnects in microchips, where the thermal conductivity could be enhanced by compositing with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Here, we have numerically designed a class of sandwich-like CNT/Cu/CNT nanotubes which possess high thermal conductivity revealed by molecular dynamics simulations. The enhancement factor of thermal conductivity of the composite using single-walled CNT is 37.5 times of that of a 5-nm-radius copper nanowire. The enhancement factor is further enlarged to 58.2 using triple-walled CNT in the outer side. The atomic stress analysis manifests that the thermal stresses are concentrated in the region around the CNT/Cu interface. The stabilities and larger enhancement factors at high temperatures imply high temperature applications of these CNT-sandwiched tubular copper nanocomposites in heat management and electronics.

由于出色的导电性，铜被广泛用作电中的电线和微芯片中的互连，其中铜与碳纳米管（CNT）的复合可以提高导热性。在这里，我们通过数值设计了一类夹心型CNT / Cu / CNT纳米管，它们具有通过分子动力学模拟显示的高导热率。使用单壁CNT的复合材料的导热系数是5纳米半径的铜纳米线的导热系数的37.5倍。使用外侧的三层CNT将增强因子进一步扩大到58.2。原子应力分析表明，热应力集中在CNT / Cu界面周围的区域中。