An
approach is proposed for assessment of the thermal properties
of aqueous pristine fullerene C60 and C70 dispersions
(AFDs) at the level of 10–7–10–5 mol L–1 by photothermal (thermal-lens) spectroscopy
for their application in medicine and technology. Along with relevant
size-characterization techniquesdifferential scanning calorimetry
(DSC) with the Gibbs–Kelvin equation and dynamic light scattering
(DLS) techniquesthis approach provides an estimation of the
size-dependent thermal properties of disperse solutionsthermal
diffusivity, thermal effusivity [thermal inertia], and thermal conductivity.
The values for AFDs under the conditions of the attained thermal equilibrium
show good precision, and the cluster size estimations agree with the
reference methods. The reconstruction of the thermal-lens characteristic
time over the course of the blooming of the thermal-lens effect reveals
a short increase in the apparent thermal diffusivity. This is accounted
for by nonequilibrium heat transfer within fullerene clusters upon
initial laser heating, which is supported by the independent estimations
from widespread methods like high-resolution transmission electron
microscopy, DLS, and DSC. Thermophysical parameters of the disperse
phase estimated from transient thermal lensing are as follows: thermal
diffusivity, 1.6–2.0 × 10–7 m2 s–1 depending on fullerene concentration and up
to 3.5 × 10–7 m2 s–1, more than 2-fold higher than for water; thermal effusivity, 6.7
× 102 J m–2 K–1 s–1/2, three times lower than for water.
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