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Thermal Conductivity of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube/PMMA Nanocomposites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Csaba Guthy
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Fangming Du
Affiliation:
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Stijn Brand
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
John E. Fischer
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Karen I. Winey
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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Abstract

Due to their exceptional thermal properties, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are considered as very promising filler materials for improving the thermal conductivity of conventional polymers. We carefully investigated the thermal conductivity of SWNT/PMMA nanocomposites with SWNT loading in the range up to10 wt% using the comparative technique. The samples were prepared by coagulation method. We demonstrated moderate improvement in the composites’ thermal conductivity of about 250% at 10wt%. The experimental results were analyzed using the versatile Nielsen model, which takes into account many important factors, like the fillers aspect ratio and maximum packing fraction. The aspect ratio of SWNT material used to prepare our composites was determined by AFM and careful image analysis in order to use it as an input parameter in the Nielsen model. We obtained good agreement between our experimental results and the predictions of the Nielsen model. Based on our analysis we concluded that higher aspect ratio of filler material was needed to achieve better improvement in the composites thermal conductivities. One should also take steps in order to improve the thermal contact between the SWNT network and the matrix material.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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References

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