Thermal Diffusivity and Thermal Conductivity of Epoxy-Based Nanocomposites by the Laser Flash and Differential Scanning Calorimetry techniques

Copyright © 2013 Jasper Chiguma et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nanocomposites were fabricated by using a commercial two part epoxy as a matrix and multiwalled carbon nanotubes, graphite fibers and boron nitride platelets as filler materials. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) that were pro-duced by chemical vapor deposition were found to produce nanocomposites with better thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity than the MWCNTs that were produced by the combustion method. Compared to the MWCNTs produced by both methods and graphite fibers, boron nitride produced nanocomposites with the highest thermal conductivity. Specific heat capacity was measured by using differential scanning calorimetry and thermal diffusivity was measured by using the laser flash