Research

Self-regulating Heating Materials

Principal investigator:
Co-investigator(s): James BUSFIELD
Image highlighting the PTC effect

The dramatic increase in electrical resistance with temperature (pyro-resistive or PTC effect), first found in carbon black (CB) based polymer composites three decades ago, is nowadays employed in self regulating heating devices. A PhD project at QMUL, partially funded by LMK Thermosafe, is currently looking into the next generation of these compounds. The research will look into a host of novel (nano)fillers as well as polymers, blends and morphologies to outperform current commercial materials.