Experimental investigation of heat conduction in polyester-Al2O3 and polyester-CuO nanocomposites

This paper presents an experimental analysis of the thermal conductivity of nanocomposite systems composed of unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) as matrices and two different metal-oxides nanoparticles as fillers: alumina (aluminum oxide) and tenorite (copper oxide). The nanoparticles used were alpha-Al₂O₃ (30-40 nm) and CuO (30-50 nm). Samples were fabricated using simple molding and homogenization using magnetic stirring. Thermal conductivities were measured using a device that complies with ASTM norms C518-04 and E1530-06. Measurements were taken at three different temperatures (0 °C, 25 °C and 50 °C), for different sets of samples, varying the nanoparticle fraction used in composite systems. Finally, the experimental data are compared with traditional models for predicting the thermal conductivity of composite materials, showing that the traditional models underestimate the measured values.