Specific heat of graphene nanoribbons

We studied the specific heat of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) using an extended force constant model. We found that at low temperature, the specific heat decreases, and its variation with temperature increases with increasing GNR width. However, the specific heat increases with increasing GNR width after crossing a chaotic region. Free boundary conditions, -CHOH-terminated and armchair-edge-induced phonon nondegeneracy, shift and distortion and localized vibrational modes significantly influence GNR specific heat compared with periodic boundary conditions and bare and zigzag edges in GNRs. Finally, we found a uniform expression for specific heat vs. width at every temperature except for the chaotic region.