Thermoelectric properties of in-plane 90°-bent graphene nanoribbons with nanopores

Abstract We study the thermoelectric performance of 90°-bent graphene nanoribbons containing nanopores for optimized design of multiple functional circuits including thermoelectric generators. We show that the thermal conductance of the 90°-bent ribbons is lower from few times to an order of magnitude compared to that of pristine armchair and zigzag straight ribbons. Consequently, the thermoelectric performance of the bent ribbons is better than its straight ribbon counterparts, in particular at high temperatures above 500 K. More importantly, the introduction of nanopores is demonstrated to strongly enhance their thermoelectric capacity. At 500 K, the figure of merit ZT increases by more than 160% (from 0.39 without pores to 0.64) with 3 nanopores incorporated, and by more than 200% (up to 0.88) when 24 nanopores are introduced. ZT ≈ 1 can be achieved at a temperature of about 1000 K. In addition, the thermoelectric performance is shown to be further improved by adopting asymmetrical leads. This study demonstrates that 90°-bent ribbons with nanopores have decent thermoelectric performance for a wide range of temperatures and may find application as efficient thermoelectric converters.