Structure factors of carbon nanotubes on the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube/epoxy composites

The structure factors of carbon nanotubes such as the dispersion, morphology and size have effects on the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube/epoxy composites (kc). However, the behavior how these structure factors affect the kc has still not been fully understood. To seek the answer, three-dimensional computational models containing various dispersion of bending single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are developed using the finite element method. A conjecture is proposed based on these models that the dispersion and the number of the overlapping heat-affected zones (OHAZs) of heat conduction networks play an important role on the kc. To prove the conjecture, a feature parameter–a dispersion coefficient is proposed to quantify the dispersion uniformity. The kc is calculated in models with different dispersion coefficients. The results show that the kc increases with the dispersion coefficient. The effects of the morphology and the size of SWCNTs on the kc could also be explained using this conjecture. SWCNTs with a larger length efficiency and diameter are found to be beneficial to a higher kc. Because a larger length efficiency increases the number of OHAZs and a larger diameter SWCNT has a wider heat-affected zone which also increases the number of OHAZs.