Improved Thermal Conductivity of Poly(trimethylene terephthalate‐block‐poly(tetramethylene oxide) Based Nanocomposites Containing Hybrid Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes/Graphene Nanoplatelets Fillers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe thermal conductivity of poly(trimethylene terephthalate‐block‐poly(tetramethylene oxide) copolymer (PTT‐PTMO)–based nanocomposites filled with the hybrid system of nanofillers, including single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) is studied. At the same loading, SWCNT provided greater thermal conductivity enhancement when added to thermoplastic elastomer matrix when compared to GNP. Moreover, SEM images showed that SWCNT and GNP were well dispersed in PTT‐PTMO, suggesting that in situ polymerization is a highly efficient method for preparing hybrid nanocomposites with low loading of carbon nanofillers. To further improve thermal conductivity of PTT‐PTMO–based nanocomposites, a hybrid SWCNT/GNP was used. When the ratio of SWCNT to GNP was 5:1, i.e. 0.5 wt% of SWCNT and 0.1 wt% of GNP, the PTT‐PTMO–based nanocomposites exhibited the highest thermal conductivity of 0.30 W/m·K, higher than that filled with SWCNT and GNP alone. This suggests that the combination of two types of nanofillers, which differ in shape, allows obtaining the synergistic effect for the thermal conductivity enhancement of PTT‐PTMO.