pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S08 - Nanocarbon Based Composites, with CNPComp2017
Oral Presentation
 
 

Universal control of pyro-resistive behaviour for flexible self-regulating heating devices

Liu Yi (1), Porwal Harshit (1)*, Peijs Ton (1), Bilotti Emiliano (1)

(1) Queen Mary University of London - -- - UnitedKingdom

Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) are considered intelligent materials to be utilized in smart devices and have attracted numerous interest from both academia and industries for decades as they combined the merits of polymer matrices and conductive filler [1]. Their capability of detecting and responding to external stimuli has offered a range of promising applications, in particular a practical choice for pyro-resistive applications such as heating devices [2]. The safety and efficiency requirement on smart heating devices has promoted the rapid growth for novel self-regulating heating devices. In order to design a good self-regulating heater, at least two equally important and fundamental aspects need to be considered: (i) good positive temperature coefficient (PTC) performance that self-regulates the heater; (ii) good Joule heating property to fulfill the heating purpose. Unfortunately, most of the existed self-regulating systems are experiencing a competitive effect between those two fundamental properties.[3] It is generally acknowledged that the low aspect ratio filler system led to a clear PTC effect, while efficient Joule heating behaviour requires large aspect filler system [4]. These two competing effects have limited novel design based on CPC hence smart design is worthy developing to achieve the wider range of applications for self-regulating heating devices. From application point of view, a more flexible heater is also desired since it could fulfill more versatile application. Here, an innovative and simple design has been developed for flexible heating devices with capability of having a universal control over the pyro-resistive behavior, which led to unlocking some of the current typical compromises in materials performance. For the first time, an heating device with large PTC intensity and good Joule heating performance, together with physical flexibility is shown, based on series connections of different conductive polymer composites.