Nanoscale Heat Conduction in CNT-POLYMER Nanocomposites at Fast Thermal Perturbations

Polymer Nanocomposite Based on Pyrolyzed Polyacrylonitrile Doped with Carbon Nanotubes: Synthesis, Properties, and Mechanism of Formation

The paper investigates the possibility of fabricating a carbon nanotubes (CNT)-modified nanocomposite based on pyrolyzed polyacrylonitrile (PPAN). The layered structure of PPAN ensures the attachment of nanotubes (NT) to the polymer matrix, forming enhanced PPAN/CNT nanocomposites. We synthesized a PPAN/CNT polymer nanocomposite and investigated its mechanical, conductive, and electronic properties. Using the quantum chemical method density functional theory (DFT), we studied an interaction mechanism between PPAN and single-walled carbon nanotubes. We described the structural features and electron energy structure of the obtained systems. We found that the attachment of a CNT to the PPAN matrix increases tensile strength, electrical conductivity, and thermal stability in the complex. The obtained materials were exposed to electromagnetic radiation and the dielectric constant, reflection, transmission, and absorption coefficients were measured. The study demonstrates the possibility of using carbon nanotubes for reinforcing polyacrylonitrile polymer matrix, which can result in the development of an enhanced class of materials possessing the properties of both polymers and CNTs.

Modelling laser ultrasound waveforms: The effect of varying pulse duration and material properties

Optical generation of ultrasound using nanosecond duration laser pulses has generated great interest both in industrial and biomedical applications. The availability of portable laser devices using semiconductor technology and optical fibres, as well as numerous source material types based on nanocomposites, has proliferated the applications of laser ultrasound. The nanocomposites can be deposited on the tip of optical fibres as well as planar hard and soft backing materials using various fabrication techniques, making devices suitable for a variety of applications. The ability to choose the acoustic material properties and the laser pulse duration gives considerable control over the ultrasound output. Here, an analytical time-domain solution is derived for the acoustic pressure waveform generated by a planar optical ultrasound source consisting of an optically absorbing layer on a backing. It is shown that by varying the optical attenuation coefficient, the thickness of the absorbing layer, the acoustic properties of the materials, and the laser pulse duration, a wide variety of pulse shapes and trains can be generated. It is shown that a source with a reflecting backing can generate pulses with higher amplitude than a source with an acoustically-matched backing in the same circumstances when stress-confinement has not been satisfied.

Integro-Differential Equation for the Non-Equilibrium Thermal Response of Glass-Forming Materials: Analytical Solutions

An integro-differential equation describes the non-equilibrium thermal response of glass-forming substances with a dynamic (time-dependent) heat capacity to fast thermal perturbations. We found that this heat transfer problem could be solved analytically for a heat source with an arbitrary time dependence and different geometries. The method can be used to analyze the response to local thermal perturbations in glass-forming materials, as well as temperature fluctuations during subcritical crystal nucleation and decay. The results obtained can be useful for applications and a better understanding of the thermal properties of glass-forming materials, polymers, and nanocomposites.

Computational Study of the Coupled Mechanism of Thermophoretic Transportation and Mixed Convection Flow around the Surface of a Sphere

The main goal of the current work was to study the coupled mechanism of thermophoretic transportation and mixed convection flow around the surface of the sphere. To analyze the characteristics of heat and fluid flow in the presence of thermophoretic transportation, a mathematical model in terms of non-linear coupled partial differential equations obeying the laws of conservation was formulated. Moreover, the mathematical model of the proposed phenomena was approximated by implementing the finite difference scheme and boundary value problem of fourth order code BVP4C built-in scheme. The novelty point of this paper is that the primitive variable formulation is introduced to transform the system of partial differential equations into a primitive form to make the line of the algorithm smooth. Secondly, the term thermophoretic transportation in the mass equation is introduced in the mass equation and thus the effect of thermophoretic transportation can be calculated at different positions of the sphere. Basically, in this study, some favorite positions around the sphere were located, where the velocity field, temperature distribution, mass concentration, skin friction, and rate of heat transfer can be calculated simultaneously without any separation in flow around the surface of the sphere.