Investigation of Carbon Nanotube Particles Addition Effect on the Dispersed Composite Structure Thermal Diffusivity

The article addresses the issue of the possibility of improving the thermal transport parameters of an epoxy resin, such as thermal diffusivity (TD) and thermal conductivity (TC), by the addition of carbon nanotubes (CNT) as a high thermal conductivity filler. In the case presented here, the effect of the addition of high TC carbon nanotubes to commercial epoxy resin LH145 cured with H147 hardener was investigated experimentally. The main parameter studied was thermal diffusivity. Measurements were carried out for samples of epoxy resin and epoxy resin matrix composites with dispersed CNTs with a volume fraction of carbon nanotubes ranging from 1% to 6%. A modified Ångström temperature oscillation method was used to obtain TD. Basic measurements were performed in the temperature range from −20 ºC to 80 ºC while maintaining high temperature resolution that allows to observe the TD changes with the temperature change. During complementary microcalorimetric studies focussed on specific heat determination effects of matrix resin postcuring were also characterized. The studies were performed within extended up to 80 ºC temperature range. As a result, the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity was determined and data for determining thermal diffusivity was obtained. However, the analysis of the obtained results did not show a significant dependence of the studied parameters on the amount of CNT additive for the studied compositions.