PMID- 28772884
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20201001
IS  - 1996-1944 (Print)
IS  - 1996-1944 (Electronic)
IS  - 1996-1944 (Linking)
VI  - 10
IP  - 5
DP  - 2017 May 12
TI  - Enhanced Thermo-Optical Switching of Paraffin-Wax Composite Spots under Laser 
      Heating.
LID - 10.3390/ma10050525 [doi]
LID - 525
AB  - Thermo-optical switches are of particular significance in communications networks 
      where increasingly high switching speeds are required. Phase change materials 
      (PCMs), in particular those based on paraffin wax, provide wealth of exciting 
      applications with unusual thermally-induced switching properties, only limited by 
      paraffin's rather low thermal conductivity. In this paper, the use of different 
      carbon fillers as thermal conductivity enhancers for paraffin has been 
      investigated, and a novel structure based on spot of paraffin wax as a 
      thermo-optic switch is presented. Thermo-optical switching parameters are 
      enhanced with the addition of graphite and graphene, due to the extreme thermal 
      conductivity of the carbon fillers. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and 
      Scanning electron microscope (SEM) are performed on paraffin wax composites, and 
      specific heat capacities are calculated based on DSC measurements. Thermo-optical 
      switching based on transmission is measured as a function of the host 
      concentration under conventional electric heating and laser heating of 
      paraffin-carbon fillers composites. Further enhancements in thermo-optical 
      switching parameters are studied under Nd:YAG laser heating. This novel structure 
      can be used in future networks with huge bandwidth requirements and electric 
      noise free remote aerial laser switching applications.
FAU - Said, Asmaa
AU  - Said A
AD  - National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences, Cairo University, Cairo 12613, 
      Egypt. soom_asmaa_a@yahoo.com.
FAU - Salah, Abeer
AU  - Salah A
AD  - National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences, Cairo University, Cairo 12613, 
      Egypt. abeersalah@niles.edu.eg.
FAU - Fattah, Gamal Abdel
AU  - Fattah GA
AD  - National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences, Cairo University, Cairo 12613, 
      Egypt. gfattah@niles.edu.eg.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20170512
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Materials (Basel)
JT  - Materials (Basel, Switzerland)
JID - 101555929
PMC - PMC5459078
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - carbon fillers
OT  - composites.
OT  - graphene
OT  - graphite
OT  - paraffin wax
OT  - phase change materials
OT  - thermo-optical switching
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in 
      the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; 
      in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.
EDAT- 2017/08/05 06:00
MHDA- 2017/08/05 06:01
PMCR- 2017/05/12
CRDT- 2017/08/05 06:00
PHST- 2017/03/10 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2017/04/30 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2017/05/08 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2017/08/05 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2017/08/05 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2017/08/05 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2017/05/12 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - ma10050525 [pii]
AID - materials-10-00525 [pii]
AID - 10.3390/ma10050525 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Materials (Basel). 2017 May 12;10(5):525. doi: 10.3390/ma10050525.