Towards Highly Homogeneous Heating of Self-regulating Heating Nanocomposites
Topic(s) : Material and Structural Behavior - Simulation & Testing
Co-authors :
Yushen WANG (UNITED KINGDOM), Bijoy DAS (UNITED KINGDOM), Yi LIU (UNITED KINGDOM), Dimitrios PAPAGEORGIOU (UNITED KINGDOM), Emiliano BILOTTI , Han ZHANGAbstract :
Conductive polymer nanocomposites (CPCs) with a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effect have been utilised in many applications such as soft robotics and healthcare devices based on their self-regulating heating functions. This type of CPC possesses an intrinsic temperature control behaviour without the need for additional digital temperature controllers, which not only enhances energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness but also contributes significantly to sustainability and safety aspects [1-3]. However, achieving homogeneous heating in such temperature self-controllable nanocomposites often remains a great challenge in many heating devices.
This study explores multiple strategies aimed at enhancing the uniformity of self-regulating heating temperature of PTC nanocomposites. Two main fundamental physical mechanisms that cause inhomogeneous heating in conductive polymer composites have been identified and analysed in detail, with a series of strategies proposed and examined to avoid the temperature inhomogeneity issue, ranging from tailored temperature-dependent materials resistivity to customised electrode designs [4]. Through a comprehensive analysis of experimental results, the effectiveness of each strategy has been evaluated with a significantly improved temperature uniformity (2.4 % variation at 125 °C), providing insights for the design and development of advanced self-regulating heating devices based on CPCs, while offering promising prospects for achieving more energy-efficient and uniform heating in various industrial applications.
This study explores multiple strategies aimed at enhancing the uniformity of self-regulating heating temperature of PTC nanocomposites. Two main fundamental physical mechanisms that cause inhomogeneous heating in conductive polymer composites have been identified and analysed in detail, with a series of strategies proposed and examined to avoid the temperature inhomogeneity issue, ranging from tailored temperature-dependent materials resistivity to customised electrode designs [4]. Through a comprehensive analysis of experimental results, the effectiveness of each strategy has been evaluated with a significantly improved temperature uniformity (2.4 % variation at 125 °C), providing insights for the design and development of advanced self-regulating heating devices based on CPCs, while offering promising prospects for achieving more energy-efficient and uniform heating in various industrial applications.