The authors present a novel method for the preparation of highly porous tannin-based meringues by shear mechanical mixing of tannin, hexamine, and Kolliphore® ELP in water. The liquid foam was then cured in an oven at 85oC for 24 hours. The resultant solid foams were found to be homogeneous and they were also found to have similar thermal conductivity and other physical properties to tannin-based foams prepared by more traditional methods....
Proton exchange membranes (PEM) are important components of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) which could potentially substitute fossil energy. The purpose of this study was to theoretically and experimentally study how the thermal conductivity of the PEM, Nafion 117, is related to water content and temperature. A thermal analyzer measured the thermal conductivity of dry Nafion 117 using the transient plane source (TPS) method. Results showed that, as predicted, the thermal ...
The purpose of this study was to fabricate and analyze the physical properties of polyacrylate–gold nanocomposites (PGNs) with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) as their nucleation agents. The transient plane source (TPS) method was used to measure the thermal properties of the polyacrylate–gold nanocomposite foams (FPGNs) and PGNs. Results showed that the addition of GNPs improved thermal conductivity of the PGN materials, but as the size of GNPs increased, the ...
Aerogels have a wide range of properties that make them effective thermal insulators. However, these properties are lost when the materials absorb too much water. The goal of this experiment was to determine how temperature and humidity affect the insulative properties of silica nano-porous aerogels. A thermal constants analyzer measured the thermal conductivity of moist silica nano-porous materials using the transient plane source (TPS) method. Results showed that the thermal ...
