Abstract
In this study, a new fabrication technique for three-dimensional (3D) filler networks was employed for the first time to prepare thermally conductive composites. A silver nanowire (AgNW)– aluminum nitride (AlN) (AA) filler was produced by a polyol method and hot-pressed in mold to connect the adjacent fillers by sintering AgNWs on the AlN surface. The sintered AA filler formed a 3D network, which was subsequently impregnated with epoxy (EP) resin. The fabricated EP/AA 3D network composite exhibited a perpendicular direction thermal conductivity of 4.49 W m−1 K−1 at a filler content of 400 mg (49.86 vol.%) representing an enhancement of 1973% with respect to the thermal conductivity of neat EP (0.22 W m−1 K−1). Moreover, the EP/AA decreased the operating temperature of the central processing unit (CPU) from 86.2 to 64.6 °C as a thermal interface material (TIM). The thermal stability was enhanced by 27.28% (99 °C) and the composites showed insulating after EP infiltration owing to the good insulation properties of AlN and EP. Therefore, these fascinating thermal and insulating performances have a great potential for next generation heat management application.
Highlights
In recent decades, the rapid advancement of automotive electrification technologies has considerably increased the demand for high-performance electronic devices [1,2]
A new fabrication method for a 3D filler network was proposed for the first time to prepare thermally conductive EP composites
After the sintering of the AA fillers, the 3D filler network was fabricated by connecting AgNWs on the aluminum nitride (AlN) surface
Summary
The rapid advancement of automotive electrification technologies has considerably increased the demand for high-performance electronic devices [1,2]. High processability and low cost of polymeric materials such as epoxy (EP) [9], polydimethylsiloxane [10], cellulose nanofibers [11] and polyvinyl alcohol [12], their intrinsically low thermal conductivities (0.2–0.5 W m−1 K−1 ) [13] constitute a bottleneck in the fabrication of thermally conductive composites To address this problem, highly thermally conductive materials, such as ceramic fillers composed of boron nitride (BN) [14] and aluminum nitride (AlN) [15], carbon-based graphene and carbon nanotubes [16], and metallic fillers comprising silver nanowires (AgNWs) [17] and copper (Cu) [18], are integrated within polymer materials to increase their thermal conductivities. The obtained EP/AA 3D network composites exhibited excellent thermal and insulation properties, suggesting that the developed composites could be potentially used as TIMs to improve the heat management of automotive electronics and satisfy the existing demand for thermally conductive and well-insulated composite materials
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