Molecular aspect ratio effect on axial thermal transport in solution-spun carbon nanotube fibers

Song, Yingru; Durán-Chaves, Michelle; Siqueira, Ivan R.; Dewey, Oliver S.; Stefanov, Ognyan; Komatsu, Natsumi; Kono, Junichiro; Pasquali, Matteo; Wehmeyer, Geoff

doi:10.1063/5.0244895

Title: Molecular aspect ratio effect on axial thermal transport in solution-spun carbon nanotube fibers

Journal Article · 09 March 2025 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0244895 · OSTI ID:2529508

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William Marsh Rice University, Houston, TX (United States)
William Marsh Rice University, Houston, TX (United States); University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Neat, densely packed, and highly aligned carbon nanotube fibers (CNTFs) have appealing room-temperature axial thermal conductivity (⁠k⁠) and thermal diffusivity (⁠α⁠) for applications in lightweight heat spreading, flexible thermal connections, and thermoelectric active cooling. Although CNTFs are regularly produced from different input carbon nanotubes (CNTs), prior work has not quantified how the CNT molecular aspect ratio r (i.e., molecular length-to-diameter ratio) influences k and in well-aligned, packed CNTFs. Here, we perform self-heated steady-state and three-omega thermal measurements at room temperature on CNTF suspended in vacuum. Our results show that k increases from 150 to 380 W / mK for viscosity-averaged molecular aspect ratios increasing from r = 960 to 5600 and nanotube diameters of ~2 nm, which we attribute to the effects of thermal resistances between CNT bundles. CNTFs made with varying volume fraction Φ of constituent high-r and low-r CNT have properties that fall within or below the typical macroscopic rule-of-mixtures bounds. The thermal diffusivity α scales with k, leading to a sample-averaged volumetric heat capacity of 1.5 ± 0.3 MJ / m³K⁠. This work's findings that fibers made from longer CNT have larger k and α at room temperature motivate further investigation into thermal transport in solution-spun CNTF.

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Research Organization:: Rice University, Houston, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); DOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0001015; EE0011230

OSTI ID:: 2529508

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 137; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Molecular aspect ratio effect on axial thermal transport in solution-spun carbon nanotube fibers

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