Nanotubes in liquids: Effective thermal conductivity

The thermal conductivities of nanotube and liquid dispersions are described with a simple physical model without any adjustable parameters. The geometric model uses periodic lattices with equal surface-to-surface distances between the nanotubes and their nearest neighbors in all directions. A combination of series model in the direction of the thermal gradient and a parallel model perpendicular to it is used along with averaging over all orientations to derive an effective bulk thermal conductivity. This model closely matches the experimental data to date. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.