Highly conducting carbon nanotube composite for electric heating unit applications

Abstract

The fabrication of highly conducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite is presented with the aim of electric heating unit applications. High shear processing techniques were used to separate highly entangled multi-walled carbon nanotubes with high aspect ratio (∼5000). No notable agglomerates or phase separation between the CNTs and PDMS matrix are observed, and the CNTs are well dispersed. It is observed that the approximate percolation threshold is found to be below 0.1 vol.%, which is a lower value than previously reported. The resulting conductivity of the CNT/PDMS composite is about 2.23 S/cm at 5.7 vol.% CNT loading. The fabricated CNT/PDMS composites can be quickly heated from room temperature to 130 °C within 90 s by applying a DC voltage of 5 V. The proposed CNT-polymer composite system with obtained results could be used as a basis for light-weight and high effective heating unit applications.