Heat transfer in poly(methyl acrylate) by photoacoustic measurements

The thermal properties (thermal diffusivity, thermal effusivity, thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity) of poly(methyl acrylate), which was obtained by ultrasonochemical polymerization, were measured experimentally with photoacoustic and other techniques. In addition, the thermal expansion of poly(methyl acrylate) was measured experimentally with an indigenously modified Fizeau's apparatus and is reported here for the first time to an accuracy of 0.05%. The results were compared with the available literature values and examined. Sinclare's apparatus was used to determine the specific heat capacity and matched well with differential scanning calorimetry measurements. The method‐of‐mixtures technique was an alternative method of determining the specific heat capacity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 1071–1076, 2004