Experimental Study on Thermal Conductivity and Rectification in Suspended Monolayer MoS₂

Thermal rectification is an attractive phenomenon for thermal management, which refers to a specific behavior in a heat transfer system where heat flow in one direction is stronger than that in the opposite direction under the same conditions. Two-dimensional monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has exhibited exceptional thermal, optical, and electrical properties due to its special structure; however, the thermal rectification in monolayer MoS₂ is still not achieved by experimental measurement. Here, we successfully transferred monolayer MoS₂ samples with three geometrical morphologies to the suspended microelectrodes by the PMMA approach. Through further heating the suspended microelectrodes with AC power in the opposite directions of these three monolayer MoS₂ samples, we experimentally measured the thermal conductivity and first obtained the thermal rectification of monolayer MoS₂. The rectification coefficients of monolayer MoS₂ with three different geometrical morphologies are 10–13, 11–4, and 69–70%. Moreover, a theoretical model was also applied to discuss the dependence of thermal rectification on the geometrical asymmetry (angle and spacing). The results demonstrate that the monolayer MoS₂ has an obvious thermal rectification phenomenon owing to the asymmetric structure, and it would have great potentials in the application of thermal energy control and management.