Thermal Conductivity in the Radial Direction of Deformed Polymer Fibers.

Abstract

Thermal conductivity of polymer fibers in the axial direction has been extensively studied while thermal conductivity in the radial direction Λ remains unknown. In this work, polymer fibers with different molecular arrangements (crystalline, liquid crystalline, and amorphous) were plastically deformed. Λ was measured at engineering strains ε = 0.2-2.3 using time-domain thermoreflectance. Λ decreases with increasing strains for polyethylene (PE) and poly(p-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole) (PBO) fibers and is independent of strain for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) fibers. The extrapolated thermal conductivity at zero strain is Λ0 ≈ 0.27 Wm-1 K-1 for crystalline PE, Λ0 ≈ 0.29 Wm-1 K-1 for liquid crystalline PBO, and Λ0 ≈ 0.18 Wm-1 K-1 for amorphous PMMA. Λ of PE drops to Λ ≈ 0.14 Wm-1 K-1 at ε = 1.9; Λ of PBO drops to Λ ≈ 0.12 Wm-1 K-1 at ε = 2.1. We attribute the decrease of Λ with ε in crystalline and liquid crystalline fibers to structural disorder induced by plastic deformation. The combination of structural disorder and phonon focusing effects produces a thermal conductivity in deformed PE and PBO fibers that is lower than amorphous PMMA.