Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Enhance heat dissipation for projection lamps by MWCNTs

nano-coating
Tun-Ping Teng a, Tun-Chien Teng b, *
a
Department of Industrial Education, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 162, Sec. 1, He-ping E. Rd., Da-an District, Taipei City 10610, Taiwan, ROC
b
Department of Mechatronic Technology, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 162, Sec. 1, He-ping E. Rd., Da-an District, Taipei City 10610, Taiwan, ROC

h i g h l i g h t s

< We prepared MWCNTs nano-coating and applied to heat dissipation for projection lamp.
< The temperature, power consuming and illumination of the fixture were evaluated.
< The internal temperature of the fixture adopting halogen lamps reduces 5.4% at most.
< The internal temperature of the fixture adopting LED lamps reduces 3.2% at most.
< The power consumption reduces 12.9% at most for LED lamps with MWCNTs nano-coating.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, we used two-step synthesis method to prepare nano-coating containing multi-walled
Received 17 March 2012 carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) of different concentrations and applied the MWCNTs to heat dissipation
Accepted 7 November 2012 for the projection lamp fixtures. We quantitatively coated the nano-coating on the inner surface of the
Available online 15 November 2012
housing of the fixture and evaluated its effects on the internal temperature, power consumption, and
luminous output of the fixture for different conditions. The results show that both concentration of the
Keywords:
MWCNT nano-coating and the projecting angle of the fixture affect the internal temperature and power
Heat dissipation
consumption. With the MWCNT nano-coating of concentration at 1.328 wt.% and the projecting angle of
Illumination
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes
0
, the internal temperature of the fixture adopting the halogen lamp and that adopting the LED lamp
Nano-coating reduce 5.4%  2.1% and 3.2%  2.1% at most, respectively; the power consumption reduces 12.9%  2.1% at
Power consumption most for the LED lamp; the luminous output has no significant difference for either the halogen or LED
lamp. This study demonstrates MWCNT Nano-coating has great feasibility for heat dissipation of the
lighting fixture. Further, this concept can also be applied to the cases requiring non-contact heat dissi-
pation. Therefore, this study can widely contributes to energy saving and carbon emission reduction.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction can be regarded as a CNT nanofluid with higher viscosity. Although

Recently, the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been being con-
cerned by many researchers in the nano-material fields. Since the
CNTs have excellent thermal conductivity and mechanical proper-
ties [1], adding the CNTs into the traditional working fluid (CNT
nanofluid) [2e7], ceramic materials [8e11], polymers [12], paraffin
[13], and thermal paste [14,15] to improve both thermal perfor-
mance and mechanical properties of the base material demon-
strates many excellent results. The coating or paint added by CNTs
* Corresponding author. Department of Mechatronic Technology, National
Taiwan Normal University, No. 162, Sec. 1, He-ping E. Rd., Da-an District, Taipei City
10610, Taiwan, ROC. Tel.: þ886 2 7734 3527; fax: þ886 2 2358 3074.
E-mail addresses: walter.teng@ntnu.edu.tw, tube.t5763@msa.hinet.net
(T.-C. Teng).
the concept of adding CNTs into the working fluid to improve the
resultant thermal conductivity is well known, but the related
experimental results of the resultant thermal conductivity have not
been identical. The resultant thermal conductivity might be due to
some factors such as aspect ratios, material, structure of CNTs,
suspension performance, dispersants, and the synthesis method for
preparing the experimental sample of nanofluids.
Choi et al. [2] dispersed the multi-walled carbon nanotubes
(MWCNTs) with a mean diameter of 25 nm and a length of 50 mm
into oil. The experimental results demonstrated that the thermal
conductivity of the MWCNT nanofluid at 1.0 vol.% enhanced more
than 160% as compared with the base fluid at room temperature. Xie
et al. [3] conducted the thermal conductivity experiments that
dispersed the CNTs in distilled water, ethylene glycol and decene.

1359-4311/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.11.006
 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106
Nomenclature
$
q heat flux, W
A area, m2
h heat transfer coefficient, W/m2
C
Int intensity, counts
k thermal conductivity, W/m
C
L thickness, m
lx illumination, lx
pc power consumption, W
R thermal resistance,
C/W or ratio
Rs reflection, %
T temperature,
C
Experimental results indicated that at least up to 20% of the thermal
conductivity as compared with the base fluid. Garg et al. [4] reported
the enhancement of thermal conductivity about 3%e5% at 25
C for
the MWCNT nanofluid of 1.0 wt.% that was ultrasonicated for 20e
80 min. Chen et al. [5] prepared the MWCNT/ethylene glycol nano-
fluid of 1.0 vol.% by a wetemechanical reaction without using
surfactant or dispersant. The thermal conductivity of the MWCNT/
ethylene glycol nanofluid was 17.5% higher than the base fluid. Chen
and Xie [6] adopted the wetemechanochemical reaction method to
produce the single, double-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs and
DWCNTs) and MWCNTs. The enhancement of thermal conductivity
was 15.6%, 14.2%, and 12.1% for the SWCNTs, DWCNTs, and MWCNTs
at 0.2 vol.%, respectively. Phuoc et al. [7] adopted the cationic chi-
tosan as a dispersant to stabilize the MWCNT/water nanofluid. The
thermal conductivity was enhanced from 2.3% to 13% for the nano-
fluid containing the MWCNTs at 0.5 wt.% to 3 wt.%.
Although most research has demonstrated that the nanofluid
containing CNTs has enhancement of the thermal conductivity as
compared with the base fluid, the effect of CNTs on coating needs to
be further studied. When the coating material containing nano-
particles (called ‘nano-coating’ hereafter) is dried to become the
solid state, some mechanisms that enhance the thermal conduc-
tivity through the particle motion will disappear. Some studies
demonstrated that adding CNTs in solid materials could enhance the
thermal conductivity of the base material [8,10,12,15], in which
Biercuk et al. [12] pointed that adding 1 vol.% SWCNTs to epoxy could
improve its thermal conductivity up to 125%. In contrast, some
studies showed that adding CNTs into the solid materials did not
enhance the thermal conductivity of the base materials [11,16,17].
The main reasons are due to some factors such as interface thermal
resistance between the base materials and CNTs, increased porosity,
inhomogeneous distribution, agglomeration of CNTs, and incom-
plete consolidation processing [11]. Therefore, the nanoparticles
must be uniformly dispersed into coating liquid, and the coating film
after drying must be closely integrated with the coating substrate.
Generally, the ultrasonic vibrator, electromagnetic stirrer,
homogenizer, and other physical dispersion are most commonly
used to mix nano-materials into base fluid for better suspension
[4,18,19]. However, it is difficult for these physical dispersion
methods to resolve agglomeration problem resulted from the van
der Waals interaction forces, non-reactive surface properties, very
large specific surface areas, and aspect ratios of CNTs [7,20e22].
Therefore, many researchers add the surfactant or dispersant in
order to improve dispersion in nanofluids. The commonly used
dispersant contains nitric/sulfuric acid mixture, potassium
hydroxide group [5,23], and various surfactants such as sodium
dodecylbenzene sulphonate (SDBS), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS),
and gum Arabic (GA) [18,24]. Although adding dispersants can
improve dispersion of nano-materials in the base fluid to maintain
1099
Subscripts
a ambient
bs back surface
c convection
ex external
i inner
in internal
o outer
r radiation
T total
w wall
a good suspension performance for a long period, the dispersants
that generally have low thermal conductivity wrap the nano-
particles to lead increase of the contact resistance on the solide
liquid interface. Therefore, overdosing surfactant or dispersant
will decrease the thermal conductivity of nanofluids.
From the above literature we can realize the CNTs can improve
heat transfer in either the fluid or solid state if it is well dispersed. In
this study we tried to apply MWCNTs to heat dissipation for another
important practical case–lighting fixtures because of eco-
consciousness. Recently, energy saving and carbon emission reduc-
tion is a very important topic. So-called ‘energy saving and carbon
emission reduction’ focuses on how to efficiently utilize energy, use
less fossil energy, and reduce carbon emission. In addition, energy
saving and carbon emission reduction should also include extending
the product lifetime to reduce the wasted material. The lighting
industry is one of the world’s great industrial sectors. It sells annually
about 20 billion lamps of the three major types: incandescent lamp,
fluorescent lamp, and high intensity discharge lamp. Operating
those lamps is estimated currently to consume over 2700 TW-h
(nearly 20% of total global electricity production, or approximately
3% of total energy consumption) and thus to produce about 2000
Megatons of CO2 emission [25]. Therefore, how to improve luminous
efficiency to reduce lighting energy consumption is a very important
task. Regarding the above concern, the light emitting diode (LED)
lighting is expected as a potential replacement for the traditional
lamp (especially for the incandescent lamp) due to its advantages
such as long lifetime, energy efficiency, wide range of colors, low-
voltage power supply, and environmental compatibility [26,27].
Particularly, the development of LED technology has driven effi-
ciency and luminous output of LED to rise exponentially. For
example, a laboratory prototype LED achieving 208 lumens per watt
at room temperature was also announced in 2010 [28,29]. Therefore,
LED has prospect of providing the majority of light sources by 2035
[30]. Despite the above advantages of LED, LED still has the serious
problem that efficiency and lifetime falls sharply with heat rising to
be resolved [31,32]. So, how to manage heat dissipation for LED is
a study-worthy topic; consequently many related researches have
been proposed [33e37]. In this study we selected a projection lamp
fixture as the experiment subject, and this fixture can adopt either
the LED lamp or halogen lamp. We coated the inner housing wall of
the fixture with the MWCNT nano-coating to improve its heat
dissipation and then investigated the effect on both the internal
temperature and power consumption of the fixture that adopted the
LED lamp. In addition, since the traditional light sources still play
a role in the immediate future through developments in the design
and control of lighting installations to provide substantial energy
saving opportunities [38], the projection lamp fixture adopting
halogen lamps was also tested as comparison group in this
experiment.
1100 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106

2. Theories for heat transfer value, T2 closer to T1 represents the lower total thermal resistance
between space A and B.
Fig. 1 shows the heat transfer process from space A to B based on According to the above-mentioned concept of heat transfer,
$
the concept of steady-state heat transfer, the heat flux (ðqT Þ) can be reducing the thermal resistance can increase the heat transfer
expressed as: performance. The thermal resistance of radiation is mainly deter-
mined by both the shape factor and surface optical properties of
$
qT ¼ hT AðT1  T2 Þ ¼ ðT1  T2 Þ=RT ; (1) materials; the thermal resistance of convection depends mainly on
both the airflow rate and surface properties; thermal conductivity
where hT is total heat transfer coefficient; A is area of heat transfer; is determined by the thermal conductivity of the material itself.
T is temperature; RT is total thermal resistance; the subscripts 1 and Therefore, using the higher absorption coating or anti-reflective
2 refer to space A and B, respectively. In the process of heat transfer, structure on the wall can reduce the thermal resistance of radia-
the relationship of heat transfer coefficient (h) and the thermal tion; increasing the airflow vents can reduce the convective
resistance (R) in the conduction, convection, and radiation are thermal resistance; using the material with high thermal conduc-
sequentially expressed as: tivity to make the wall can effectively reduce the thermal resistance
of heat conduction. Similarly, coating a film containing the
Rw ¼ ð1=hw AÞ ¼ ðL=kAÞ; (2) MWCNTs that has both high thermal conductivity and high optical
absorption properties on the either inner or outer surface of
Rc ¼ ð1=hc AÞ; (3) a closed or semi-enclosed lampshade can also both enhance the
heat dissipation performance of the lighting fixture and extend
lifetime of the lamp.
Rr ¼ ð1=hr AÞ; (4)

where the subscripts w, c, and r refer to conduction, convection,
and radiation, respectively.
The convection and radiation occur simultaneously at a surface,
and both the thermal resistance of convection and radiation can be
combined into a single thermal resistance. The total thermal
resistance based on the concept of electrical series and parallel
resistance can be expressed as follows:



RT ¼ R1;c ==R1;r þ Rw þ R2;c ==R2;r :
The heat flux is constant when the heat transfer from space A to
B under steady state conditions, and then the Eq. (1) can be
rewritten as follows:
$ 

qT ¼ ðT1  Ts1 Þ= R1;c ==R1;r ¼ ½ðTs1  Ts2 Þ=Rw 


¼ ðTs2  T2 Þ= R2;c ==R2;r :
In the Eq. (6), we can find that the smaller temperature differ-
ence represents the lower thermal resistance of the interface when
the heat flux is constant. In contrast, when T1 keeps at a constant
3. Preparation of MWCNT nano-coating and experimental
design
3.1. Preparation of test samples
Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are the photographs of Multi-walled carbon
nanotubes (MWCNTs, Cheap Tubes Inc.) through the high-
resolution field emission scanning electron microscope (HR-
(5) FESEM, S4800, Hitachi) and transmission electron microscope
(TEM, H-7100, Hitachi), respectively. According to the specification
provided by the manufacturer, the MWCNTs have an outside
diameter of 20e30 nm, inside diameter of 5e10 nm, length of 10e
30 mm, average density of 2.1 g/cm3, and thermal conductivity of
about 300e400 W/mK. As we can see from those figures, the
MWCNTs aggregate, and their primary outside diameter is
(6) approximately in line with the specification.
We used the MWCNTs/water nanofluid produced by two-step
synthesis method as the dilute liquid. First, we added 0.2 wt.% of
cationic dispersant (water-soluble chitosan) into distilled water as
the base liquid in order to obtain good dispersion performance for
the MWCNTs/water nanofluid. Chitosan is widely used in medicine,
agriculture, chemical, and food processing areas without causing

Fig. 1. The diagram of heat transfer process. Fig. 2. HR-FESEM images of MWCNTs.
 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106 1101

(80  80  0.3 mm) to form the sample 2, 3, and 4 under the spray
pressure at 2.0 kg/cm2. After each spraying process was finished,
the samples were dried in an oven for 3 h at 50
C. We measured
the thickness of the coating films on the samples by thickness
meter (LZ-370, KETT) at accuracy of 2%, and the thickness
measured 70  5 mm. We also measured reflection spectra of each
sample by VIS-NIR spectrometer (BRC112E, B&W) at a resolution
of 2 nm.

3.2. Design and process of heat dissipation experiment

In order to test the heat transfer performance of the galvanized

steel plate coated with the MWCNTs, the test configuration was
setup as shown in Fig. 4. In this test, the coated surface (front
surface) of the experimental sample facing the hot plate (PC-420D,
Corning) was heated at a fixed distance (250 mm) away from the
hot plate at the different heating temperatures (60, 80, 100, 120,
and 140
C), and two thermocouples were attached on the back
surface of the sample to measure the temperature. Thus, the
temperature of back surface of the test samples can determine the
heat transfer performance. The accuracy of the K-type thermo-
couple is 0.1
C.
In order to investigate the performance of the MWCNT nano-
coating applied to heat dissipation for the projection lamp
Fig. 3. TEM images of MWCNTs. fixture, we implemented the heat dissipation performance exper-
iment on the projection lamp fixture. Fig. 5 shows the structure of
the projection lamp fixture in this study. This projection lamp
environmental pollution due to its non-toxic and biodegradable
fixture contains a cylindrical housing with vents thereon, vents (the
features, so this study used the water-soluble chitosan as a disper-
lower and upper), a lamp, and a holder that can pose the cylindrical
sant for the MWCNTs/water nanofluid [7,19]. Second, we gradually
housing at different projecting angle. The projecting angle affects
added the MWCNTs into the base liquid step by step and up to the
the heat dissipation of the vents due to direction change of the
needed weight through a precision electronic balance (XS125A,
airflow in the vents. In order to investigate the effects of the
Precisa) at a precision of 0.1 mg. Thirdly, in order to keep the
MWCNT nano-coating and projecting angle (0
or 90
) on heat
nanoparticle with stable suspension in the base liquid, we alter-
dissipation of the fixture, we attached the K-type thermocouple
nately used an electromagnetic agitation (PC-420D, Corning),
with accuracy of 0.1
C on both the lamp socket and outer surface
homogenizer (T25 digital, IKA), and ultrasonic vibrator (D400H,
of the housing by high thermal conductivity adhesive (plastic steel
TOHAMA) for about 3 h to disperse the MWCNTs. The prepared
epoxy 3344, PowerBon), and connected the thermocouple with
MWCNTs/water nanofluid had three weight fractions (1.0, 2.0,
a data logger (TRM-20, TOHO) to measure the temperature when
4.0 wt.%).
the lamp was turned on. Before the experiment was implemented,
Next, the MWCNT nano-coating was produced. First, we used
we carefully selected three fixtures, three halogen lamps, and three
the trial and error method to repeatedly test the optimal amount of
LED lamps for prior test to make sure that the difference in illu-
solvent (MWCNTs/water nanofluid) to dilute the bulk material for
mination, power consumption, and internal temperature between
easy spray, and thus obtained the optimal dilution of volume ratio
the three fixtures with the lamp of the same kind is within 2.0%.
at 40 vol.%. The ingredients of the different kinds of the dilution
solvent are listed in Table 1. The bulk material is water-based paint
(National Ltd. Co., Taiwan). The density of the bulk material is
1340 kg/m3, and its main ingredient is an acrylic polymer. The
MWCNT nano-coating was dispersed several times by a homoge-
nizer, electromagnetic stirrer, and ultrasonic vibrator in order to
make it easy to be sprayed.
We sprayed the MWCNT nano-coating of each different
concentration twice times on each galvanized steel plate

Table 1
Preparation parameters of MWCNTs nano-coating.

Sample no. Sample 1 Sample Sample Sample

2 3 4
Density of water-based paint Non-coating 1340
(kg/m3)
MWCNTs/water nanofluid 1.0 2.0 4.0
(wt.%)
Dilution of volume ratio 40
(vol.%)
MWCNTs concentration in 0.332 0.664 1.328
coating (wt.%)
Fig. 4. Setup to test heat transfer performance for MWCNTs coating.
1102 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106
Fig. 5. The structure of projection lamp fixture at different projecting angle. (a) 90
,
(b) 0
.
First, we turned on the three fixtures with a halogen lamp (Decostar
51/50W/12V/38deg., OSRAM) for 70 min as background experi-
ment, and then replaced the lamp with a LED lamp (MR-16/3.5W/
12V/50deg., China Electric mfg. Corporation) for the same back-
ground experiment. The temperature data were averages of the
data measured in the last 10 min of the background experiment.
When the illuminating time reached 60 min, we started to measure
both the illumination and power consumption of each fixture by an
illuminometer (TES-1336A, TES) with accuracy of 3.0% and
a digital power meter (WT230, Yokogawa) with accuracy of 0.35%
for different lighting sources (halogen lamps and LED lamps) and
projecting angles (0
and 90
) in order to obtain the differences in
power consumption and illumination on the surface at a fixed
distance below the fixture. The data of illumination and power
consumption were averages of the ten measurements with an
interval of 1 min during the last 10 min in the experiment. Next, the
inner surfaces of the cylindrical housing of the three fixtures were
coated with the paint containing the MWCNTs of three different
concentrations at 0.332, 0.664, and 1.328 wt.%, respectively. In
order to obtain the uniform coating on the inner surface and reduce
the thickness differences between the samples, we fixed the
cylindrical housing horizontally and concentrically at a motor shaft
to let the housing rotate at 600 rpm for 20 min to make the coated
paint dry and uniform after the paint was quantitatively brush
(1.0 ml) by quantitative dropper and rubber spatula. Then, the
samples were dried in the oven at 50
C. Next, we conducted the
heat dissipation experiment on the projection lamp fixtures whose
housing was coated by the paint containing the MWCNTs according
to the procedure same as the above-mentioned background
experiment. Finally, we compared the difference in the tempera-
ture, illumination, and power consumption of the projection lamp
fixtures between those with and without the MWCNT nano-coating
in order to investigate the effects of the MWCNT nano-coating on
heat dissipation and lighting performance. Furthermore, In order to
reduce experimental deviation, the environmental temperature
was controlled at 25  0.5
C during the experiments.
3.3. Uncertainty and data analysis
The uncertainty of the results of this experiment were deter-
mined by measuring the deviation in the parameters, including the
illumination, power consumption, and temperature. Because we
mainly evaluated the difference between the same fixture without
coating and with coating, the deviation between the fixtures had
little impact on evaluation. In the heat dissipation experiment for
the projection lamp; the illumination (lx) was determined from
readings of the illuminometer; the power consumption (pc) was
measured by the digital power meter; the internal (Tin) and
external (Tex) temperature was measured by the data logger; the
ambient temperature (Ta) was controlled by the temperature
controller of DC inverter air conditioner. The uncertainty of illu-
mination, power consumption, and temperature in the heat dissi-
pation experiment for the projection lamp experiment can be
expressed as Eqs. (7)e(9), respectively.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
um;lx ¼ ðDlx=lxÞ2 þðDTa =Ta Þ2 (7)
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
um;pc ¼ ðDpc=pcÞ2 þðDTa =Ta Þ2 (8)
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
um;T ¼ ðDT=TÞ2 þðDTa =Ta Þ2 (9)
The accuracy of the illuminometer is within 3.0%. The accuracy
of the digital power meter is within 0.35%. The accuracy of the
thermocouple for internal and external temperature of the
projection lamp is within 0.1
C. The accuracy of the temperature
controller of DC inverter air conditioner for ambient temperature is
within 0.5
C. Therefore, the uncertainty of the illumination,
power consumption, and temperature experiment is within 3.6%,
2.1%, and 2.1%, respectively.
3.4. Data analysis
The measurement data of heat dissipation performance, illu-
mination, and power consumption for the lamp fixture with
uncoated housing are referred as baseline values (Db), and the
measurement data for the lamp fixture with housing coated by
paint containing the MWCNTs are marked as Dc. For explicit
investigation, the experimental data Dc were compared with Db.
The differences between Dc and Db are presented as proportions (R)
and are expressed as follows:
R ¼ ðDc =Db Þ  100%: (10)
4. Results and discussion
Fig. 6 shows the reflection spectra of the samples. The sample 1
is bare galvanized steel plate without coating, sample 2e4 are
coated by the paint containing the MWCNTs of 0.332, 0.664, and
1.328 wt.%, respectively. In the Fig. 6, we can find that adding
 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106
Fig. 6. Reflection spectra of the test samples.
the MWCNTs can reduce the reflectivity within UVeNIR band
(350e950 nm), and the reflectivity decreases with increase in
concentration of the MWCNTs. This phenomenon is mainly because
the MWCNTs have excellent optical absorption within UVeNIR
band. However, when concentration of the MWCNTs exceed
above 0.664 wt.%, there is no significant difference in reflectivity
because absorption reaches saturation.
Fig. 7 shows the heat transfer performance of the samples. In
Fig. 7, we can find that adding the MWCNTs can increase the
temperature of the back surface of the sample, and the temperature
increases with increase in concentration of the MWCNTs. For the
same heating temperature of the hot plate, the higher back surface
temperature means that there is greater heat flux through the
sample, and the sample has lower thermal resistance; consequently
providing better heat dissipation. This phenomenon is mainly
Fig. 7. Heat transfer performance of the samples.
1103
Fig. 8. Internal temperature trends of halogen lamp at different projecting angles.
because the MWCNTs have both excellent optical absorption and
high thermal conductivity (about 300e400 W/mK) to reduce
thermal resistance in both radiation and conduction. As seen from
Fig. 6, MWCNT nano-coating has high optical absorption such that
the thermal resistance in radiation can be reduced. Further, because
the overall thermal conductivity of the mixture depends on the
thermal conductivity of each ingredient, adding the material with
high thermal conductivity into the bulk material can increase the
overall thermal conductivity [39,40]. Therefore, the total thermal
resistance also reduces when the thermal resistance decreases in
both radiation and heat conduction.
Fig. 8 and Fig. 10 show the temperature of the lamp socket
(called ‘internal temperature’ hereafter) of the lamp fixtures at
different projecting angle in the background test, and the related
data can be referred to Table 2. Figs. 9 and 11 show the temperature
Fig. 9. External temperature trends of halogen lamp at different projecting angles.
1104 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106
Fig. 10. Internal temperature trends of LED lamp at different projecting angles.
of the outer housing surface (called ‘external temperature’ here-
after) of the lamp fixtures at different projecting angle in the
background test. As we can see from those figures, both the internal
temperature and external temperature at projecting angle of 90
is
higher than that at the projecting angle of 0
. This phenomenon can
be explained as follows (please also refer to Fig. 5): at the projecting
angle of 90
, the cold air enters into the bottom vents and the
heated air discharges from the top vents according to the principle
of heat convection. Thus, the heated air flows by the lamp socket
and heats it; major portion of the heat generated by the lamp is
transferred by convection, and minor portion is dissipated through
the housing wall. In contrast, at the projecting angle of 0
, most of
the heated air does not flow by the lamp socket, so the internal
temperature is lower. Furthermore, at the projecting angle of 0
, the
housing wall provides greater effective heat transfer area, and the
heated air easily discharge from the vents on the housing wall, so
the external temperature is also lower. From Figs. 8 and 9, we can
find that the difference of internal and external temperature
between 90
and 0
at 60 min after the halogen lamp was turned on
is about 28
C and 10
C, respectively. From Figs. 10 and 11, we can
find that the difference of internal and external temperature
between 90
and 0
at 60 min after the LED lamp was turned on is
about 3
C and 1.5
C, respectively.
In order to investigate the effects of the MWCNT nano-coating
on the internal temperature of the fixtures, the temperature of
each fixture with coated housing is compared with that of the same
fixture before its housing is coated. The three fixtures with inner
housing wall coated by paint containing the MWCNTs of
Table 2
Experimental results of initial condition for baseline.
Test parameters Deg. Halogen
lamp
Illumination (lx) 90
9980 9980
0
10,060 10,090
Internal temperature (
C) 90
173.15 174.91
0
146.78 151.41
Power consumption (W) 90
39.60 40.08
0
40.08 40.56
Note: Relative standard deviation (RSD) ¼ (standard deviation/mean)  100%.
concentration at 0.332, 0.664, and 1.328 wt.%, respectively are
called ‘fixture 1’, ‘fixture 2’, and ‘fixture 3’, respectively. Fig. 12
shows the ratio of internal temperature of the fixture with coated
housing to that of the corresponding fixture with uncoated
housing. In Fig. 12, we can find that there is more significant effect
for the fixtures at a projecting angle of 0
. For the halogen lamp,
little effect is observed at a projecting angle of 90
. However, for
the fixtures at a projecting angle of 0
, the internal temperature of
the fixtures with inner housing wall coated by paint containing the
MWCNTs of concentration at 0.332, 0.664 wt.% (fixture 1 and
fixture 2) increases instead. It is because the bulk material of the
paint has higher thermal resistance such that the total thermal
resistance of the paint is still higher when the added the MWCNTs
are fewer. When concentration of the added MWCNTs reaches
1.328 wt.%, the internal temperature is reduced 5.4%  2.1% as
compared with the uncoated case. For the LED lamp, similarly, little
effect is observed at projecting angle of 90
. For the fixtures at
a projecting angle of 0
, the internal temperature is reduced
3.2%  2.1% for the fixture with inner housing wall coated by paint
containing the MWCNTs of concentration at 1.328 wt.%. For both
the halogen and LED lamps at a projecting angle of 0
, the internal
temperature decreases with increase in concentration of the
MWCNTs.
Similarly, in order to investigate the effects of the MWCNT nano-
coating on power consumption of the fixtures, the power
consumption of each fixture with coated housing is compared with
that of the same fixture before its housing is coated. Fig. 13 shows
the ratio of power consumption of the fixture with coated housing
to that of the corresponding fixture with uncoated housing. In
Fig. 13, we can find that there is no effect of the MWCNT nano-
coating on power consumption of the fixtures for the halogen
lamp. In fact, the power consumption of halogen lamp is affected by
temperature of the filament. In order to stabilize the power
consumption of the lamp, the resistance of the filament is designed
to increase with the increase in temperature. For such design, when
the temperature of the filament increases due to increase in dissi-
pation power, the resistance of the filament also increases such that
the power consumption is suppressed. In contrast, when the
temperature of the filament decreases due to decrease in dissipa-
tion power, the resistance of the filament decreases such that
power consumption increases. It should be noted that the luminous
efficiency decreases as the temperature of the filament decreases
according to the blackbody irradiation principle. Therefore,
although the lower temperature benefits the lifetime of the fila-
ment, the temperature is still set at the optimal regarding the
luminous efficiency [41e43]. For the above reasons, we just cool
down the local temperature of the lamp socket instead of the fila-
ment in this study. For the halogen lamp, just little portion of the
heat generated by the filament dissipates through the lamp socket,
so cooling down the local temperature of the lamp socket has very
little impact on the filament temperature. It can be proved by
checking if the output spectra of the lamp changes. In this study,
the output spectra were monitored and had very little variation
RSD LED RSD
lamp
9760 1.05% 556 554 545 0.87%
9860 1.02% 554 535 533 1.75%
170.19 1.13% 51.81 52.89 50.96 1.52%
153.18 1.79% 48.69 49.48 48.03 1.22%
38.64 1.52% 3.88 3.88 3.88 0.00%
39.12 1.50% 3.92 3.90 3.90 0.24%
 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106
Fig. 11. External temperature trends of LED lamp at different projecting angles.
during the experiment. Since the filament temperature was not
affected in the experiment, the power consumption does not
change. In contrast, for the LED lamp, Fig. 13 shows the MWCNT
nano-coating has some effect on the power consumption. Espe-
cially for the higher concentration of the MWCNT nano-coating, the
power consumption reduces 12.9%  2.1% at most. It is mainly due
to both the characteristic of LED chip and rectifier electronics
integrated in the LED lamp. The junction temperature quite impacts
the luminous efficiency and lifetime of the LED chip; the luminous
efficiency and lifetime exponentially decreases as the junction
temperature increases. Because LED is a ‘cold light’ source, the most
heat generated from the LED chip is conducted out through the
substrate. Thus, cooling down the temperature of the lamp socket
Fig. 12. Internal temperature ratio of fixtures at different projecting angles.
1105
Fig. 13. Power consumption ratio of fixtures at different projecting angles.
can also reduce the junction temperature of LED chip. Further, since
LED needs DC electricity power, the related rectifier electronics are
integrated on the bottom of the LED lamp. Thus, lower temperature
of the lamp socket also can reduce the power consumption and
benefit the lifetime of the electronics. Based on the above reasons,
the MWCNT nano-coating has more obvious effect on power
consumption of the LED lamps.
Similarly, in order to investigate the effects of the MWCNT nano-
coating on the illumination, the illumination of each fixture with
coated housing is compared with that of the same fixture before its
Fig. 14. Illumination ratio of fixtures at different projecting angles.
1106 T.-P. Teng, T.-C. Teng / Applied Thermal Engineering 51 (2013) 1098e1106
housing is coated. Fig. 14 shows the ratio of illumination of the
fixture with coated housing to that of the corresponding fixture
with uncoated housing. In Fig. 14, we can find that there is little of
the MWCNT nano-coating on illumination of the fixtures for either
the halogen lamp or LED lamp. The difference in the experiment
data is within the deviation of the illumination experiment (3.6%).
In this study, the above results demonstrate that the MWCNT
nano-coating can indeed reduce the internal temperature of the
fixtures and reduce the power consumption (for LED lamps) while
maintains the same luminous output. Therefore, this study will
contribute to lifetime of the components, energy saving and carbon
emission reduction.
5. Conclusions
In this study, we quantitatively painted the inner housing wall of
the projecting lamp fixtures with the MWCNT nano-coating of
different concentration in order to reduce the internal temperature
of the fixtures for the purpose of both extending the lifetime of the
components and saving energy. The experimental results show that
the internal temperature reduces 5.4%  2.1% (for the halogen
lamp) and 3.2%  2.1% (for the LED lamp) at most for the fixture
with housing coated by the MWCNT nano-coating of 1.328 wt.% at
the projecting angle of 0
. The power consumption reduces
12.9%  2.1% (for the LED lamp) at most for the fixture with housing
coated by the MWCNT nano-coating of 1.328 wt.% at the projecting
angle of 0
. The MWCNT nano-coating has no effect on luminous
output for either the halogen lamp or LED lamp. This study
demonstrates that the MWCNT nano-coating has high feasibility in
heat dissipation for lighting fixtures, which benefits the lifetime of
the related components. Further, the MWCNTs can also extend to
be applied to the cases requiring non-contact heat dissipation.
Therefore, this study can widely contribute to energy saving and
carbon emission reduction.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank National Science Council of the
Republic of China, Taiwan for their financial support to this research
under contract no.: NSC-100-2221-E-003-029 and NSC-100-2221-
E-003-015, respectively.
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