Heat conduction in conducting polyaniline nanofibers

Thermal conductivity and specific heat of conducting polyaniline nanofibers are measured to identify the nature of heat carrying modes combined with their inhomogeneous structure. The low temperature thermal conductivity results reveal crystalline nature while the high temperature data confirm the amorphous nature of the material suggesting heterogeneous model for conducting polyaniline. Extended acoustic phonons dominate the low temperature (<100 K) heat conduction, while localized optical phonons hopping, assisted by the extended acoustic modes, account for the high temperature (>100 K) heat conduction. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.