High-Conductivity Graphite Foams for Thermal Control in Heavy Vehicles
A novel technique for creating pitch-based graphite foam was developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), This technique utilizes mesophase pitch as a starting material but does not require the costly blowing or stabilization steps seen with typical carbon foams. The ORNL foam is an open-cell structure with highly aligned graphitic ligaments to be very near that of perfect graphite (0.3354 nm). As a result of its near-perfect structure, thermal conductivities along the ligament are calculated to be approximately 1700 W/m•K, with bulk conductivities {>=} 180 W/m•K. Furthermore, the material exhibits low densities (0.25-0.6 g/cm{sup 3} ) such that the specific thermal conductivity is approximcitely four to five times greater than that of copper. The very high surface area (20,000 m{sup 2}/m{sup 3}) combined with the high thermal conductivity suggests that graphite foam has significant potential for application as a thermal management material.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Vehicle Technology Program (EE-2G)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 940253
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL00-0592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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