PHONON TRANSPORT IN CARBON NANOTUBE AEROGELS

L Hu and HB Chen and G Coloyan and AJH McGaughey, PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASME MICRO/NANOSCALE HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, 2012, 555-558 (2012).

A carbon nanotube (CNT) aerogel is a low-density network of small diameter single-walled CNTs held together by van del Waals forces. Due to the excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of individual CNTs and the potential to fuse the junctions in the aerogel, CNT aerogels are candidates for ultralight structural media, radiation detectors, thermal insulators, and electrical conductors. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, we predict the thermal conductance of the junction formed between two CNTs. To access the range of conditions present in the aerogel, we test the effects of different boundary conditions, the CNT lengths, and the rotational angle of the CNTs. A 3-D network model of the aerogel is built that will be used with the MD predictions to estimate the aerogel thermal conductivity.

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