The thermal conductivities of four composite paraffin phase change materials (PCMs) containing embedded multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with varying dimensions were determined. The goals of this study were to investigate the interfacial thermal resistance between two MWCNTs, and to investigate the ballistic and diffusive components of the thermal resistance at the interface. It was found that the thermal conductivity of the composite PCMs increased with the diameter of the MWCNT ...
The effects of intrinsic thermal conductivity, carbon filler geometry, and interface thermal resistance on the effective thermal conductivity of polymer composites were investigated. It was found that the length of carbon fillers and the interface thermal resistance were the dominant factors in determining the effective thermal conductivity of the composites. The authors suggest that the most thermally conductive polymer composite would contain long carbon nanofibers that have undergone surface functionalization ...
