Research on Thermal Conductivity of Electrospun Polyacrilonitrile-Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Composite Carbon Nanofiber Papers

Abstract

In recent decades, the rapid development of nanoscience and nanotechnology has accelerated materials with high thermal conductivity, such as composite carbon nanomaterials, since heat removal has become a crucial issue. In this work polyacrilonitrile (PAN) incorporated with alteration of mass fraction (0.3 wt%, 0.62 wt%, 0.92 wt%, 2.74 wt%) of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were used to fabricate composite fibers via electrospinning. The stabilizing and carbonization reactions of composite nanofibers are conducted in tube furnace at 280 °C and 1000 °C. The structural features of flexible composite carbon nanofiber papers were characterized under scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Special attention of composite carbon nanofiber papers is given to cross-plane thermal conductivity and in-plane thermal conductivity and were measured via Flash Line Analyzer. The results proved that flexible composite carbon nanofiber papers are promising heat sink radiator for a variety of applications including flexible optical and electronic devices.