Anomalous thermal conduction characteristics of phase change composites with single walled carbon nanotube inclusions

walled carbon nanotube inclusions Sivasankaran Harish, Kei Ishikawa, Shohei Chiashi, Junichiro Shiomi, Shigeo Maruyama Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan. We report large contrasts in the thermal conductivity enhancement of phase change alkanes in liquid and solid state with single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) inclusions. Well characterized SWCNTs grown by alcohol catalytic chemical vapor deposition method were dispersed in the phase change alkane using sodium deoxycholate (DOC) surfactant. Thermal conductivity measurements in solid and liquid state were carried out using a transient hot wire technique for different SWCNT loadings. The thermal conductivity contrast between liquid and solid state was found to increase with increasing SWCNT loadings. Similar phase dependent thermal conductivity contrast was observed when were used as the inclusions. The thermal conductivity contrast was more pronounced in the presence of SWCNTs compared to the presence of exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets.