Structure-induced enhancement of thermal conductivities in electrospun polymer nanofibers

Zhenxin Zhong, Matthew C. Wingert, Joseph Strzalka, Hsien Hau Wang, Tao Sun, Jin Wang, Renkun Chen*, Zhang Jiang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

99 Scopus citations

Abstract

Polymers that are thermally insulating in bulk forms have been found to exhibit higher thermal conductivities when stretched under tension. This enhanced heat transport performance is believed to arise from the orientational alignment of the polymer chains induced by tensile stretching. In this work, a novel high-sensitivity micro-device platform was employed to determine the axial thermal conductivity of individual Nylon-11 polymer nanofibers fabricated by electrospinning and post-stretching. Their thermal conductivity showed a correlation with the crystalline morphology measured by high-resolution wide-angle X-ray scattering. The relationship between the nanofiber internal structures and thermal conductivities could provide insights into the understanding of phonon transport mechanisms in polymeric systems and also guide future development of the fabrication and control of polymer nanofibers with extraordinary thermal performance and other desired properties.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)8283-8291
Number of pages9
JournalNanoscale
Volume6
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 21 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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