Aligned MWCNTs as Thermal Conductors in Adhesive Joints

Thermal conductivities of joints can be increased substantially.

A developmental method of increasing the thermal conductance of an adhesive joint in a composite-material structure (or between a composite-material structure and another structure) involves exploitation of the inherently large thermal conductances of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) along their longitudinal axes. A composite material of the type to which the method applies is, somewhat more specifically, a polymer-matrix/fiber composite. Typically, the matrix polymer is an epoxy, and the adhesive used to bond the composite-material structure may not be an epoxy. In any event, the thermal conductivity of the adhesive is about 0.3 W/mK — a value that is insufficient for many applications in which there are requirements for efficient transfer of heat.