Thermal conductivity and interfacial resistance in single-wall carbon nanotube epoxy composites

We report thermal conductivity measurements of purified single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) epoxy composites prepared using suspensions of SWNTs in N-N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) and surfactant stabilized aqueous SWNT suspensions. Thermal conductivity enhancement is observed in both types of composites. DMF-processed composites show an advantage at SWNT volume fractions between ϕ∼0.001 to 0.005. Surfactant processed samples, however, permit greater SWNT loading and exhibit larger overall enhancement (64±9)% at ϕ∼0.1. The enhancement differences are attributed to a ten-fold larger SWNT/solid-composite interfacial thermal resistance in the surfactant-processed composites compared to DMF-processed composites. The interfacial resistance is extracted from the volume fraction dependence of the thermal conductivity data using effective medium theory. C. W. Nan, G. Liu, Y. Lin, and M. Li, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 3549 (2004).