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Copper nanoparticle-deposited graphite sheets for highly thermally conductive polymer composites with reduced interfacial thermal resistance

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Abstract

Highly thermally conductive polymer-based composites are becoming increasingly important for effectively removing the accumulated heat of thermal management devices. However, interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) seriously affects the heat transfer performance of composites. Herein, after mildly modifying the commercial graphite, copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) are deposited on the surface of modified graphite (MGr) by chemically reducing. And the CuNPs-deposited MGr (MGr/Cu) hybrids are mixed with epoxy resin to prepare composites. Through the improved interfacial contact and interconnection between CuNPs and MGr, the heat conduction pathways will be easy to form in epoxy matrix. And the MGr/Cu hybrids exhibit well compatibility with epoxy matrix. Consequently, the resultant composite exhibits a high thermal conductivity of 4.57 W m−1 K−1 at 50 wt% MGr/Cu loading. Fitting the experimental value with Foygel nonlinear model further reveals that the ITR is 3.92 × 10−6 m2 K W−1 for MGr/Cu/epoxy composites, which decreases by 27.94% than that of Gr/epoxy composites. Moreover, our composite displays well heat dissipation potential in thermal management application. This strategy provides an effective guidance for reducing the ITR inside polymer composites to prepare thermal management materials.

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The thermal conductivity is improved via thermally conductive Cu bridges between modified graphite and the improved compatibility between graphite and epoxy.

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Funding

The research is financially supported by the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 51925403), Major Research plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91934302), and the National Science Foundation of China (21676052, 21606042). Funding for exploratory projects of the National Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (SKL-ChE-20T07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology and State Key Laboratory for Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Xu, Yexiang Cui, Yueyang Gao, Dan Lin, Xiao Wang, Jianwen Peng, Haolei Geng & Huaiyuan Wang

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Xu, Yexiang Cui, Yueyang Gao, Dan Lin, Xiao Wang, Jianwen Peng, Haolei Geng & Huaiyuan Wang

  3. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Chemical Process Safety and Equipment Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300372, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Xu, Yexiang Cui, Yueyang Gao, Dan Lin, Xiao Wang, Jianwen Peng, Haolei Geng & Huaiyuan Wang

  4. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, 163318, People’s Republic of China

    Di Bao

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  1. Fei Xu
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Xu, F., Bao, D., Cui, Y. et al. Copper nanoparticle-deposited graphite sheets for highly thermally conductive polymer composites with reduced interfacial thermal resistance. Adv Compos Hybrid Mater 5, 2235–2246 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-021-00367-1

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