title: Structure-induced enhancement of thermal conductivities in electrospun polymer nanofibers.
abstract: Polymers that are thermally insulating in bulk forms have been found to exhibit higher thermal conductivities when stretched under tension. This enhanced heat transport performance is believed to arise from the orientational alignment of the polymer chains induced by tensile stretching. In this work, a novel high-sensitivity micro-device platform was employed to determine the axial thermal conductivity of individual Nylon-11 polymer nanofibers fabricated by electrospinning and post-stretching. Their thermal conductivity showed a correlation with the crystalline morphology measured by high-resolution wide-angle X-ray scattering. The relationship between the nanofiber internal structures and thermal conductivities could provide insights into the understanding of phonon transport mechanisms in polymeric systems and also guide future development of the fabrication and control of polymer nanofibers with extraordinary thermal performance and other desired properties.
authors.affiliation: X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA. zjiang@aps.anl.gov.
authors.forename: Zhenxin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wingert
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Strzalka
authors.forename: Hsien-Hau
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Renkun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang