Fabrication of Electrospun SiC Fibers Web/Phenol Resin Composites for the Application to High Thermal Conducting Substrate

Abstract

Polycabosilane (PCS) could be spun to form fiber web by electrospinning PCS solution in 30% dimethylformide (DMF)/toluene solvent at 25 kV. The electrospun web is stabilized at 200 degrees C for 1 hour to connect fibers by softening PCS webs and pyrolysed to synthesize silicon carbide (SiC) webs at 1800 degrees C. The pyrolysis at 1800 degrees C increased the SiC crystal size to 45 nm from 3 nm at 1300 degrees C. However, the pyrolysis at 1800 degrees C forms pores on the surface of SiC fibers due to oxygen evaporation generated during thermals curing. SiC/phenol composite webs could be fabricated by infiltration of phenol resin and hot pressing. The thermal conductivity measurement indicates that higher SiC fibers filler contents increase the thermal conductivity up to 1.9 W/mK for 40% fraction of filler contents from 0.5 W/mK for 20% fraction of filler.