Arrangement structure of carbon nanofiber with excellent spectral radiation characteristics

Abstract

Abstract To explore the spectral radiation characteristics of carbon nanofibers, a finite-difference time-domain method has been applied to study and calculate the scattering/absorption factors of carbon nanofibers with various arrangements, while the filler contents are 61.15%, 53.81%, 48.92%, 44.03% and 39.13% in the spectrum band of 2.5–15 µm. The effects of the nanofiber content, 2D/3D random arrangement and nanofiber radius on scattering/absorption characteristics have been analyzed. The analytical results show that the spectral radiation characteristics of carbon nanofibers have been significantly increased with an increase in the filler content. When the nanofiber content reduced to 48.92%, the random arrangement structure of carbon nanofiber plays an essential role in determining the spectral radiation characteristics. Analytical results prove that the prediction accuracy has been significantly improved by 30.12% by sing the 3D random arrangement model than by using the 2D uniform arrangement model. This study proposed a 3D model to predict the spectral radiation characteristics of carbon nanofibers and their aggregates in engineering nanocomposites.