Building an Electrical/Thermal Actuation Device Using Homogenously Dispersed Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) act as great thermal conductors which have the potential to be utilized in many engineering systems. The issue with incorporating CNTs into systems is their lack of growth reproducibility. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of an applied transverse electric field on the alignment of CNTs dispersed in Toluene. The experimental variables isolated in this study is the concentration of CNTs in the solution, the voltage of the applied transverse electric field, and the voltage of the applied internal electric field. The applied transverse electric field was varied between 0V and 20V in increments of 5V, the internal voltage of the system was varied between 0V and 20V in increments of 1V, and then the resulting resistance was calculated using LabVIEW. In the second set of testing, it was determined that increasing the concentration of CNTs in a system, with an applied transverse electric field, contributed to higher levels of solution resistance in the direction perpendicular to the transverse current.