In-plane thermal transport and interfacial thermal resistance in carbon/silicon carbide van der Waals heteronanotubes: a molecular dynamics study.

Controlling heat flow in low-dimensional nanomaterials via van der Waals (vdW) heterostructuring is critical for advanced nanoelectronic, energy, and thermoelectric applications. In this work, we systematically investigate the axial thermal conductivity and interfacial thermal resistance of carbon nanotube/silicon carbide nanotube (CNT@SiCNT) vdW heterostructures using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and a transient pump-probe heating method. The thermal response is comprehensively examined as a function of temperature, heterostructure length, diameter, chirality, axial strain, and vdW coupling strength, while the underlying mechanisms are interpreted through phonon density of states analysis. Our results reveal that the thermal conductivity decreases significantly with increasing temperature, exhibiting a reduction of ∼62% from 300 to 1100 K. In contrast, it increases with nanotube length following a power-law dependence and rises with diameter toward a convergent limit. Furthermore, axial strain and enhanced vdW coupling enable effective modulation of thermal transport, reducing the thermal conductivity by approximately 16.3% and 61.2%, respectively. The interfacial thermal resistance decreases monotonically with both temperature and interlayer coupling strength, with reductions of ∼63.68% and 73.01%, respectively, driven by enhanced phonon transmission across the interface. Phonon density of states analysis indicates that suppression of low-frequency phonon modes under stronger vdW confinement governs the observed transport behavior. These findings provide fundamental insights into phonon-mediated heat transfer in one-dimensional vdW heteronanotubes and offer viable strategies for tuning thermal transport in nanoscale thermal management and thermoelectric applications.