title: Measurement of the intrinsic thermal conductivity of a multiwalled carbon nanotube and its contact thermal resistance with the substrate.
abstract: The intrinsic thermal conductivity of an individual carbon nanotube and its contact thermal resistance with the heat source/sink can be extracted simultaneously through multiple measurements with different lengths of the tube between the heat source and the heat sink. Experimental results on a 66-nm-diameter multiwalled carbon nanotube show that above 100 K, contact thermal resistance can contribute up to 50% of the total measured thermal resistance; therefore, the intrinsic thermal conductivity of the nanotube can be significantly higher than the effective thermal conductivity derived from a single measurement without eliminating the contact thermal resistance. At 300 K, the contact thermal resistance between the tube and the substrate for a unit area is 2.2 × 10(-8) m(2) K W(-1) , which is on the lower end among several published data. Results also indicate that for nanotubes of relatively high thermal conductance, electron-beam-induced gold deposition at the tube-substrate contacts may not reduce the contact thermal resistance to a negligible level. These results provide insights into the long-lasting issue of the contact thermal resistance in nanotube/nanowire thermal conductity measurements and have important implications for further understanding thermal transport through carbon nanotubes and using carbon nanotube arrays as thermal interface materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235-1592, USA; School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacture of Micro-Nano Biomedical Instruments, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, P. R. of China.
authors.forename: Juekuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Scott W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Waltermire
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gutu
authors.forename: Alfred A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Zinn
authors.forename: Terry T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yunfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Deyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li