Abstract
In this paper we discuss the results of thermal transport measurements in multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) bundles at elevated temperatures. A novel generalized electrothermal technique (GET) was developed for measuring the thermal diffusivity (α) and conductivity (k) of MWCNT bundles. The results show that the feeding current has a negligible effect on the thermal properties. The measured k is larger than the reported values for unaligned bundles, and is comparable to that of typical aligned arrays. Compared with experimental and theoretical data for individual CNTs, k of the MWCNT bundles is two to three orders of magnitude lower, suggesting that the thermal transport in CNT bundles is dominated by the thermal contact resistance of tube-to-tube junctions. The effective density for the two MWCNT bundles, which is difficult to measure using other techniques, was determined to be 116 kg/m3 and 234 kg/m3, respectively. The temperature dependences of α and k at temperatures up to 830 K was obtained. α slightly decreases with temperature while k exhibits a small increase with temperature up to 500 K and then decreases. For the first time, the behavior of specific heat cp(T) for CNTs above room temperature was determined. The specific heat is close to graphite at 300~400 K but is lower than that for graphite above 400 K, indicating that the behavior of phonons in MWCNT bundles is dominated by boundary scattering rather than by the three-phonon Umklapp process. The length of the mean curvature between two adjacent tube contact points in these bundles is estimated to be on the order of micrometer to millimeter. The analysis of the radiation heat loss suggests that it needs to be considered when measuring the thermophysical properties of micro/nano wires of high aspect ratios at elevated temperatures, especially for individual CNTs due to their extremely small diameter.
