Low Lattice Thermal Conductivity of a Two-Dimensional Phosphorene Oxide

A fundamental understanding of the phonon transport mechanism is important for optimizing the efficiency of thermoelectric devices. In this study, we investigate the thermal transport properties of the oxidized form of phosphorene called phosphorene oxide (PO) by solving phonon Boltzmann transport equation based on first-principles density functional theory. We reveal that PO exhibits a much lower thermal conductivity (2.42–7.08 W/mK at 300 K) than its pristine counterpart as well as other two-dimensional materials. To comprehend the physical origin of such low thermal conductivity, we scrutinize the contribution of each phonon branch to the thermal conductivity by evaluating various mode-dependent quantities including Grüneisen parameters, anharmonic three-phonon scattering rate, and phase space of three-phonon scattering processes. Our results show that its flexible puckered structure of PO leads to smaller sound velocities; its broken-mirror symmetry allows more ZA phonon scattering; and the relatively-free vibration of dangling oxygen atoms in PO gives rise to additional scattering resulting in further reduction in the phonon lifetime. These results can be verified by the fact that PO has larger phase space for three-phonon processes than phosphorene. Furthermore we show that the thermal conductivity of PO can be optimized by controlling its size or its phonon mean free path, indicating that PO can be a promising candidate for low-dimensional thermoelectric devices.