Effect of short carbon fibers on the thermal conductivities of Csf/AZ91D composites

Abstract

Developing metal matrix composites with lightweight and high thermal conductivities (TCs) to realize high-efficiency thermal management is of great significance. Herein, a strategy for preparing short carbon fiber preform without any chemical binder through the application of vacuum filtration is proposed. High in-plane and nearly unaltered out-plane thermal conductive magnesium matrix composites with short carbon fibers have been prepared by the independently developed liquid-solid extrusion following the vacuum infiltration (LSEVI) technique. The in-plane TCs of the composites reaches 72.16 W·(m·K)−1, a 50.3% enhancement compared to the matrix. The microstructures of the carbon fibers and magnesium matrix before and after the fabrication processing are characterized using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy (RS). The composites display attractive thermal properties and this work provides an efficient approach to prepare short fiber-related thermal conductive metal matrix composites with a refined thermal management capacity.