Turning Carbon Nanotubes from Exceptional Heat Conductors into Insulators

Thermal conductivity (kappa) of isolated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is higher than the kappa of diamond; however, in this Letter we show that the kappa of a packed bed of three-dimensional random networks of single and multiwall CNTs is smaller than that of thermally insulating amorphous polymers. The thermoelectric power (Sigma) of the random network of CNTs was also measured. The Sigma of a single wall nanotube network is very similar to that of isolated nanotubes and, in contrast with kappa, Sigma shows a strong dependence on the tube diameter.