A New Thermal Controlling Material with Positive Temperature Coefficient for Body Warming: Preparation and Characterization

Positive temperature coefficient (PTC) materials have many applications in self-regulating heating; however, they are generally used in the high temperature range, and their use in the room temperature range have rarely been reported. A new kind of PTC material with the Curie temperature of 37 °C was proposed in this study. The material was prepared by adding 6wt % carbon black (CB) and 5wt % dioctyl phthalate (DOP) into the copolymer of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and lauric acid (LA) (1:3). The results showed that it had an exceptionally high PTC intensity of 5.5 and rationally low electrical resistivity of 600 Ω·cm. at room temperature. And this PTC material also shows a preferable repeatability in the PTC intensity after the thermal cycle of 4th. Moreover, the PTC material shows a great potential application in warming the human body in a cold environment.