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Abstract: In this study, the thermal conductivity of alkanes was altered, by using inverse micellar templating and nanofibers. The main goal of this study was to create alkanes with tunable thermal conductivities, for their use as phase change materials in heat management. The thermal conductivity of an n-hexadecane product with inverse micelles of different volume fractions was analyzed. The tunable thermal conductivity of the micelle templated alkaline was determined to be reversible under repeated thermal cycling. During the first order of phase transition, the frozen, nanosized micelles containing highly packed linear chain surfactants were pushed to the intercrystal boundaries of the alkanes, creating a heat conduction pathway. As a highly tunable thermal conductivity in the alkane with the inverse micelle template is seen, these alkanes can be used as phase change materials in heat management.

Reference: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 118:25 (2014) 13972–13980

DOI: 10.1021/jp503209y