Scaling laws and mesoscopic modeling of thermal conductivity in carbon nanotube materials.

The scaling laws describing the thermal conductivity in random networks of straight conducting nanofibers are derived analytically and verified in numerical simulations. The applicability of the scaling laws to more complex structures of interconnected networks of bundles in carbon nanotube (CNT) films and mats is investigated in mesoscopic simulations. The heat transfer in CNT materials is found to be strongly enhanced by self-organization of CNTs into continuous networks of bundles. The thermal conductivity of CNT films varies by orders of magnitude depending on the length of the nanotubes and their structural arrangement in the material.