Thermal Conductivity of Polymer–Carbon Composites

Abstract

Thermally conductive polymer–carbon composites whirled the motion and created a new era in polymer composites field by replacing the metal parts and inorganic filler-polymer composites in several application areas like heat exchanger, electric motors, power exchanger and generators. The advantages that create the possibilities of polymer–carbon composites over others lie in the several advantages such as lightweight, non-corrosive and most importantly ease of processing. Carbonaceous fillers generally have very high thermal conductivity, but their polymer composites suffer from achieving such high level of thermal conductivity though it attains the requirement in field application or even more in some particular filler-polymer combinations. The challenge mainly comes from the high interfacial resistance between filler and polymer matrix which alter the phonon transfer path, resulting in low thermal conductivity of polymer composites. This chapter reviews the thermal conductivity of various polymer–carbon filler composites with special references to the role of crystallinity developed in polymer due to the presence of filler, size and shape of filler, surface modification to improves interfacial adhesion and their dispersion ability in the polymer matrix in controlling the thermal conductivity of composites.