Chemically driven carbon-nanotube-guided thermopower waves
Author(s)
Choi, Wonjoon
Hong, Seunghyun
Abrahamson, Joel T.
Han, Jae-Hee
Song, Changsik
Nair, Nitish
Baik, Seunghyun
Strano, Michael S.
Date Issued
March 2010
Journal
Nature Materials
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Choi, Wonjoon et al. “Chemically Driven Carbon-nanotube-guided Thermopower Waves.” Nature Materials 9.5 (2010): 423–429.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Theoretical calculations predict that by coupling an exothermic chemical reaction with a nanotube or nanowire possessing a high axial thermal conductivity, a self-propagating reactive wave can be driven along its length. Herein, such waves are realized using a 7-nm cyclotrimethylene trinitramine annular shell around a multiwalled carbon nanotube and are amplified by more than 10[superscript 4] times the bulk value, propagating faster than 2 m s[superscript −1], with an effective thermal conductivity of 1.28±0.2 kW m[superscript −1] K[superscript −1] at 2,860 K. This wave produces a concomitant electrical pulse of disproportionately high specific power, as large as 7 kW kg[superscript −1], which we identify as a thermopower wave. Thermally excited carriers flow in the direction of the propagating reaction with a specific power that scales inversely with system size. The reaction also evolves an anisotropic pressure wave of high total impulse per mass (300 N s kg[superscript −1]). Such waves of high power density may find uses as unique energy sources.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
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Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2714
