Category: Transient Plane Source
Author(s): Chul B. Park, Mehdi Saniei, Minh-Phuong Tran, Pengjian Gong, Petra Potschke, Piyapong Buahom
Keywords: carbon nanotubes, cnts, foams, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir), fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, ftir, nanocomposites, polymeric foams, scanning electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (sem), sem, tem, thermal insulation, transient plane source, transient plane source (tps) method, transmission electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (tem)
Abstract: Polystyrene/multi-walled carbon nanotube (PS/MWCNT) nanocomposite foams were prepared in order to determine if these foams exhibited a reduced thermal conductivity in comparison to pristine polystyrene foam. The thermal conductivity of foams can be broken down into three modes of conduction: gas conductivity, solid conductivity, and radiative conductivity. The PS/MWCNT foams had decreased gas and radiative conductivities in comparison to the pristine PS foam; however, the solid conductivity was increased due to the added thermal conductivity of the nanotubes. An optimized content of 1 wt. % MWCNTs was determined which blocks as much radiative thermal energy as possible without causing the overall thermal conductivity to be higher than is practical for an insulating material.
Reference: Carbon, 93 (2015) 819-829
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2015.06.003