Thermal diffusivity and conductivity of multiwalled carbon nanotube arrays

A laser flash technique was applied to measure the thermal diffusivity along a multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT) array in temperature range of −55–200°C. In the measurements, a nanosecond pulsed laser was used to realize noncontact heating and the temperature variations were recorded by an infrared detector. The experimental results show that the thermal diffusivity of the CNT array increases slightly with temperature in the −55–70°C temperature range and exhibits no obvious change in the 75–200°C temperature range. The CNT array has much larger thermal diffusivity than several known excellent thermal conductors, reaching about 4.6 cm2 s−1 at room temperature. The mean thermal conductivity (λ  ) of individual CNTs was further estimated from the thermal diffusivity, specific heat (CpCp), and density (ρ  ) by using the correlation of λ=αρCpλ=αρCp. The thermal conductivity of individual CNTs increases smoothly with the temperature increase, reaching about 750 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature.