Thermal and electrical conductivity of single- and multi-walled carbon nanotube-epoxy composites

The electrical and thermal conductivities of epoxy composites containing 0.005–0.5 wt% of single-walled (SWNTs) or multi-walled (MWNTs) carbon nanotubes have been studied. The MWNT composites had an electrical percolation threshold of <0.005 wt%, whereas the thermal conductivity of the same samples increased very modestly as a function of the filler content. In the case of the SWNT composites, the electrical percolation thresholds were higher (0.05–0.23 wt%) whereas the thermal conductivity was lower than that of the pristine epoxy.