  We show that an increasingly strong thermal rectification effect occurs in
the thermodynamic limit in a one-dimensional, graded rotor lattice with
nearest-neighboring interactions only. The underlying mechanism is related to
the transition from normal to abnormal heat conduction behavior observed in the
corresponding homogeneous lattices as the temperature decreases. In contrast
and in addition to that by invoking long-range interactions, this finding
provides a distinct scenario to make the thermal rectification effect robust.
