Carbon nanotubes are efficient thermal conductors and exhibit unique electrical properties. What is not entirely clear, however, is how to effectively transfer the carbon nanotube's unique attributes exhibited at the nanoscale to the macroscale. The primary focus of this study was upon identifying the main causes that can lead to improvements in thermal and electrical conductivity for polymers with the use of the reinforcement material. The effects of carbon nanotube type and structure on the physical properties of derived epoxy composite materials were investigated experimentally to better understand the applied physics of thermal and electrical transport at the nanoscale. The thermal and electrical properties of the composite materials were also investigated theoretically with various models. The results indicated that the hydroxyl functionalization of carbon nanotubes can be an effective means to enhance the thermal and electrical properties of the derived composite materials. Hydroxyl-functionalized carbon nanotubes exhibit considerably improved thermal and electrical conductivity in applications including polymer composites. Hydroxylated carbon nanotubes can achieve at least one or more of the following objectives: improves the solubility and dispersibility of the carbon nanotubes in polymer materials into which the carbon nanotubes are to be mixed, reduces contact resistance between carbon nanotubes incorporated into the polymer material by drawing the carbon nanotubes closer together, and provides a conductive bridge between carbon nanotubes to reduce the electrical contact resistance there between. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes can reduce the probability of inelastic phonon scattering due to grain boundaries, thereby yielding a higher effective thermal conductivity for derived polymer composite materials.

碳纳米管是有效的热导体，并​​表现出独特的电性能。然而，还不完全清楚的是如何有效地将碳纳米管在纳米尺度上展现的独特属性转移到宏观尺度。这项研究的主要重点是确定使用增强材料可以导致聚合物导热性和导电性提高的主要原因。通过实验研究了碳纳米管类型和结构对衍生的环氧复合材料的物理性能的影响，以更好地了解纳米级热和电传输的应用物理。理论上还用各种模型研究了复合材料的热和电性能。结果表明，碳纳米管的羟基官能化可以是增强衍生的复合材料的热和电性能的有效手段。羟基官能化的碳纳米管在包括聚合物复合材料的应用中表现出显着改善的导热性和导电性。羟基化的碳纳米管可以实现以下至少一个或多个目的：提高碳纳米管在要混合碳纳米管的聚合物材料中的溶解度和分散性，通过拉伸降低引入聚合物材料中的碳纳米管之间的接触电阻碳纳米管靠得更近，并在碳纳米管之间提供导电桥，以减小它们之间的电接触电阻。