The structural stability of various structures (railroads, bridges, buildings, etc.) is lowered due to freezing because of the decreasing outside temperature in winter. To prevent damage from freezing, a technology for de-icing has been developed using an electric-heating composite. For this purpose, a highly electrically conductive composite film with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) uniformly dispersed in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix through a three-roll process was fabricated by shearing the MWCNT/PDMS paste, through a two-roll process. The electrical conductivity and the activation energy of the composite were 326.5 S/m and 8.0 meV at 5.82 Vol% of MWCNTs, respectively. The dependence of the electric-heating performance (heating rate and temperature change) on the applied voltage and environmental temperature (from -20 °C to 20 °C) was evaluated. The heating rate and effective-heat-transfer characteristics were observed to decrease as the applied voltage increased, while they showed the opposite tendency when the environmental temperature was at sub-zero temperatures. Nevertheless, the overall heating performance (heating rate and temperature change) was maintained with little significant difference in the considered external-temperature range. The unique heating behaviors can result from the low activation energy and the negative-temperature (T) coefficient of resistance (R) (NTCR, dR/dT < 0) of the MWCNT/PDMS composite.
Keywords: activation energy; composite heater; joule heating; multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT); temperature coefficient of resistance.