Evaluation of thermal conductivity of single carbon nanotube in liquid using fluorescent micropillars

Carbon nanotube (CNT) is one of the most promising materials for various applications. There are a lot of studies on mechanical and thermal properties of a single CNT in vacuum condition. However, thermal conductivity of the single CNT in liquid are not well investigated. In this paper, we proposed evaluation of thermal conductivity of a single CNT using fluorescence temperature sensor and local laser heating in liquid. The sensor containing fluorescence dye is used for fixation of CNT, indirect heating of CNT by infra-red (IR) laser, and local temperature measurement. CNT is fixed to the sensor during fabrication process. Thermal conductivity is calculated by the temperature variation of each sensor and heat quantity passing through the CNT. We demonstrated measurement of thermal conductivities of a single CNT in liquid. The average thermal conductivity of six single CNTs was 1.2×10³ ± 4.6×10² [W/mK].