Enhancing Thermal Management and Workability in Polymer NanoComposite

Idan Levy, Chemical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
Oren Regev, Chemical Engineering, Ben-gurion University Of The Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

Thermal management of polymer systems is essential for various electronic applications, such as encapsulation of electronic components and thermal interface material. We enhance the thermal and electrical conductivity (TC and EC, respectively) of a polymer matrix by loading a mixture of nano- and micron-size carbonaceous particles (hybrid filling). However, polymer loaded by nanofillers often show increased viscosity, which make processing difficult, i.e., low workability. Hybrid-composite of graphene nanoplatelets and graphite demonstrated enhancement of both thermal and electrical conductivity of epoxy polymer matrix (1 and 12 orders of magnitude, respectively). Judicious manipulation of the graphene-to-graphite weight ratio results in the above enhancements without sacrificing the workability.