Date of Award

Fall 12-2016

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Virginie Rollin

First Committee Member

Daewon Kim

Second Committee Member

Jeff R. Brown

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are well known for their high thermal and electrical conductivities and can offer a great advantage by converting the applied electrical energy into instant heat with minimum energy loss. The goal of this research is to develop a very thin CNT layer sandwiched between two layers of glass substrate in order to generate instant heat through electrodes. The thin CNT layer is fabricated using the CNTRENETM solution, which is a mixture of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) (~75%), double-walled nanotubes (DWNTs), and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs) with an average CNT length of ~0.4 - 0.6 μm. The thin layer is deposited by spin coating the CNTRENETM solution on the transparent glass substrate. By varying the number of coated layers, the effects of optical transmittance and heating rates are observed. Results show that a room temperature specimen reaches 60 °C within 80 seconds, reproducing the same results over time. This technique can be used to develop a transparent conductive film heater, particularly for defrosting or deicing windshields, and can also be applied to other surface types that need instant heating. This research can replace conventional heaters, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), which are fabricated either by dielectrophoresis or piece-wise alignment.

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