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Improved thermal conductivity of polycarbonate composites filled with hybrid exfoliated graphite/multi-walled carbon nanotube fillers

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Abstract

The thermal conductivities of polycarbonate (PC) composites filled with carbon fillers, including carbon black (CB), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and exfoliated graphite (EG), were studied. EG filler provided substantially greater thermal conductivity enhancement when embedded into PC matrix compared with CB and MWCNTs at the same loading. To further improve the thermal conductivity of PC composite, a hybrid EG/MWCNTs filler was used. When the hybrid filler loading was 10 mass%, the radio of EG: MWCNTs was 9:1, and the thermal conductivity of PC composite showed a maximum value of 1.19 W m−1 K−1 higher than that filled with EG or MWCNTs alone, indicating that the combination of EG and MWCNTs demonstrated a synergistic effect for the thermal conductivity enhancement of PC. EG/MWCNTs/PC composite with thermal conductivity >5 W m−1 K−1 was fabricated when the filler content was 40 mass%, which would widen its field of applications in electrons, LED lamps and aerospace.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51103040), Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline (B502), Science Foundation of China Postdoctor (2013M531140) and Shanghai Key Laboratory Project (08DZ2230500).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory Polymeric Materials, Key Laboratory of Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Material Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Rd, Shanghai, 200237, People’s Republic of China

    Feng Zhang, Qiuying Li, Yujin Liu, Shijie Zhang, Chifei Wu & Weihong Guo

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  1. Feng Zhang
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  2. Qiuying Li
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  3. Yujin Liu
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  4. Shijie Zhang
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Correspondence to Qiuying Li.

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Zhang, F., Li, Q., Liu, Y. et al. Improved thermal conductivity of polycarbonate composites filled with hybrid exfoliated graphite/multi-walled carbon nanotube fillers. J Therm Anal Calorim 123, 431–437 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-4903-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-4903-7

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