2002/04/15 by M. J. Biercuk, M. C. Llaguno, M. Radosavljevic +3 · 3 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Fiber-reinforced polymer composites #Thermal properties of materials #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.1469696
published as Applied Physics Letters 80, 2767 (2002)
openalex publication_date 2002/04/15 · arxiv created 2002/05/20 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were used to augment the thermal transport properties of industrial epoxy. Samples loaded with 1 wt % unpurified SWNT material showed a 70% increase in thermal conductivity at 40 K, rising to 125% at room temperature; the enhancement due to 1 wt % loading of vapor grown carbon fibers was three times smaller. Electrical conductivity data showed a percolation threshold between 0.1 and 0.2 wt % SWNT loading. The Vickers hardness rose monotonically with SWNT loading up to a factor of 3.5 at 2 wt %. These results suggest that the thermal and mechanical properties of SWNT-epoxy composites are improved, without the need to chemically functionalize the nanotubes.