Carbon nanotube films have a great potential for the application of flexible electrothermal film, most attention has been only devoted into aspects of three different electrical heating sections, including the temperature growth section, the steady-state maximum temperature section and the temperature decay section, of electric heating carbon nanotube films in terms of electrothermal characteristics, a systematical study concerning the sizes dependence of electrothermal characteristics is inadequate. Herein, quantitative expressions concerning electric heating temperature and geometrical dimension of carbon nanotube film were proposed, and according to the relationships, the steady-state temperature could be determined by the length, width, thickness or area of carbon nanotube film, as well as other electrical and thermal parameters. The results demonstrated that smaller area, length-to-width ratio and thickness are conducive to reach a higher electric heating temperature of films at same applied electrical power while hysteresis of response time and cooling time would not be introduced, comparing to other types of carbon nanotube films. These characteristics and the obtained quantitative relations could contribute to design of carbon nanotube films as electric heater efficiently. On the other hand, a method to estimate electrical conductivity of conductive film materials was proposed on the basis of the aforementioned relationships, which put forward a way of thinking from the thermal point of view.
Carbon nanotube films spun from a gas phase reactor for manufacturing carbon nanotube film/carbon fibre epoxy hybrid composites for electrical applications
