Issue 8, 2021

Highly thermally conductive liquid metal-based composites with superior thermostability for thermal management

Abstract

Thermally conductive polymer composites (TCPCs) are highly desirable for thermal management in modern electrical systems and next-generation flexible electronic devices. However, the integration of superior thermal conductivity, good mechanical performance, and high thermostability in TCPCs remains a daunting challenge, due to the utilization of abundant rigid fillers (such as graphene, boron nitride and aluminum nitride) and the low thermal stability of polymer matrices. Herein, a highly thermally conductive film with excellent mechanical strength and toughness is developed based on soft liquid metal (LM) and rigid aramid nanofibers (ANFs), via a vacuum infiltration technique. The LM/ANF composite films possess superior in-plane and through-plane thermal conductivity (7.14 @ 1.68 W m−1 K−1) because of the formation of a tightly packed structure, in which LM droplets are randomly distributed among the well-ordered ANFs to construct efficient heat conduction networks. Meanwhile, an outstanding tensile strength of 108.5 MPa and a high toughness of 10.3 MJ m−3 are achieved in the LM/ANF composite films. Furthermore, the LM/ANF composite films also have remarkable thermostability, flexibility, and mechanical reliability, without an obvious change in the thermal conductivity even at an elevated temperature of 250 °C and after repeated folding for 1000 cycles, respectively. These admirable features shed light on the application of the LM/ANF composite films for thermal management of high-power integrated electronic devices.

Graphical abstract: Highly thermally conductive liquid metal-based composites with superior thermostability for thermal management

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Nov 2020
Accepted
08 Jan 2021
First published
15 Jan 2021

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021,9, 2904-2911

Highly thermally conductive liquid metal-based composites with superior thermostability for thermal management

L. Jia, Y. Jin, J. Ren, L. Zhao, D. Yan and Z. Li, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021, 9, 2904 DOI: 10.1039/D0TC05493C

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