Nanocomposites of Polymers Made Conductive by Nanofillers

Haiping Hong s, Dustin Thomas S, Mark Horton S, Yijiang Lm Jing L, Pauline Smith d, and Walter RoyP 

Nanofillers, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), especially single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), have attracted a great deal of interest due to their low density, large aspect ratio, superior mechanical properties, and unique electrical and thermal conductivities [1-4], They can find potential applications in many fields, such as chemical sensing, gas storage, field emission, scanning microscopy, catalysis, and composite materials. 

Nanofillers were first discovered by Japanese Scientist S. lijima in 1991 as helical microtubules of graphitic carbon [1]. Dr Richard E. Smalley of Rice University, USA was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his codiscovery of buckyballs (Ceo) and has made significant contributions in carbon nanotube synthesis and potential applications [2,3]. 

Nanostructured Conductive Polymers Edited by Ali Eftekhari 2010 John Wiley Sons, Ltd 

Nanofillers have superb thermal and electrical properties. All nanotubes are expected to be very good thermal conductors along the tube axis, exhibiting a property known as ballistic conduction, but good insulators laterally to the tube axis. It has been reported that single-wall carbon nanotubes exhibit thermal conductivity (TC) values as high as 2000-6000 W mK [4] under ideal circumstances. The temperature stability of carbon nanotubes is estimated to be up to 2800 °C in a vacuum, and about 750 °C in air. By comparison, metals have TC values of several hundred W mK , and water and oil have TC values of only 0.6 W mK and 0.2 W mK respectively. Table 19.1 lists the thermal conductivities of various materials, including nanofillers (nanotubes), metals, and oils. 

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Nanocomposites of Polymers Made Conductive by Nanofillers 739 Table 19.1 Thermal conductivity of various materials... 

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