Heat conduction properties of industrial grade multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes exhibit faster phonon transport than diamond, which was previously recognized as the best thermal conductor, and the electric current-carrying capacity of carbon nanotubes is approximately four orders of magnitude higher than that of copper. The Young's modulus of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (a measure of their elasticity, or ability to recover from stretching or compression) is estimated by researchers to be greater than that of carbon fibres by a factor of 5 to 10. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes are capable of readily absorbing loads via a sequence of reversible elastic deformations, such as buckling or kinking, in which the bonds between carbon atoms remain intact. As for thermal properties, carbon nanotubes outperform diamond as the best thermal conductor. Applications of carbon nanotubes are aimed to make use of their unique properties to solve problems at the nanoscale. Their high surface area, together with the unique ability to carry any chemical compounds after surface modification, offers carbon nanotubes the potential to be used as nanoscale catalyst supports with high catalytic reactivity and chemical sensors. They are known to be the best field emitters due to their sharp tips, which can concentrate electric field easily, enabling them to emit electrons at low voltages. Contributor: Junjie Chen, ORCID: 0000-0001-5055-4309, E-mail address: [email protected], Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, 2000 Century Avenue, Jiaozuo, Henan, 454000, P.R. China