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Nano Research 2023, 16(11): 12821-12829 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6209-6
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 09 November 2023

Enhanced composite thermal conductivity by percolated networks of in-situ confined-grown carbon nanotubes

Show Author's Information Xiao Zhang1,2( ),  Wei Tan2,†,  Tian Carey3,‡,  Bo Wen2,3,⊥,  Delong He4,  Adrees Arbab3,  Alex Groombridge2,5,  Fiona Smail2,  Jean de La Verpilliere2,5,  Chengning Yao6,  Yanchun Wang1,  Xiaojun Wei1,  Huaping Liu1,  Sishen Xie1,  Felice Torrisi3,6,7,  Michael De Volder2( ),  Weiya Zhou1( ),  Adam Boies2( )
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK
Cambridge Graphene Centre, Engineering Department, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK
Université Paris-Saclay, Centrale-Supélec, ENS Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LMPS-Laboratoire de Mécanique Paris-Saclay, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Echion Technologies, Cambridge CB22 3FG, UK
Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, UK
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita' di Catania, Catania 64 95123, Italy
Present address: School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
Present address: School of Physics, CRANN & AMBER Research Centres, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin D02 E8C0, Ireland
Present address: Jaguar Land Rover, Banbury Road Gaydon, Lighthorne Heath, Warwick CV35 0RR, UK
Keywords:
composites, thermal conductivity, carbon nanotubes, hexagonal boron nitride, three-dimensional printing
Topics:
Carbon nanotubesChemical vapor depositionNetwork architecture
Cite this article:
Zhang X, Tan W, Carey T, et al. Enhanced composite thermal conductivity by percolated networks of in-situ confined-grown carbon nanotubes. Nano Research, 2023, 16(11): 12821-12829. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6209-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Despite the ever-increasing demand of nanofillers for thermal enhancement of polymer composites with higher thermal conductivity and irregular geometry, nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been constrained by the nonuniform dispersion and difficulty in constructing effective three-dimensional (3D) conduction network with low loading and desired isotropic or anisotropic (specific preferred heat conduction) performances. Herein, we illustrated the in-situ construction of CNT based 3D heat conduction networks with different directional performances. First, to in-situ construct an isotropic percolated conduction network, with spherical cores as support materials, we developed a confined-growth technique for CNT-core sea urchin (CNTSU) materials. With 21.0 wt.% CNTSU loading, the thermal conductivity of composites reached 1.43 ± 0.13 W/(m·K). Secondly, with aligned hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as an anisotropic support, we constructed CNT-hBN aligned networks by in-situ CNT growth, which improved the utilization efficiency of high density hBN and reduced the thermal interface resistance between matrix and fillers. With ~ 8.5 wt.% loading, the composites possess thermal conductivity up to 0.86 ± 0.14 W/(m·K), 374% of that for neat matrix. Due to the uniformity of CNTs in hBN network, the synergistic thermal enhancement from one-dimensional (1D) + two-dimensional (2D) hybrid materials becomes more distinct. Based on the detailed experimental evidence, the importance of purposeful production of a uniformly interconnected heat conduction 3D network with desired directional performance can be observed, particularly compared with the traditional direct-mixing method. This study opens new possibilities for the preparation of high-power-density electronics packaging and interfacial materials when both directional thermal performance and complex composite geometry are simultaneously required.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Enhanced composite thermal conductivity by percolated networks of in-situ confined-grown carbon nanotubes

Show Author's information Xiao Zhang1,2( ), Wei Tan2,†, Tian Carey3,‡, Bo Wen2,3,⊥, Delong He4, Adrees Arbab3, Alex Groombridge2,5, Fiona Smail2, Jean de La Verpilliere2,5, Chengning Yao6, Yanchun Wang1, Xiaojun Wei1, Huaping Liu1, Sishen Xie1, Felice Torrisi3,6,7, Michael De Volder2( ), Weiya Zhou1( ), Adam Boies2( )
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK
Cambridge Graphene Centre, Engineering Department, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK
Université Paris-Saclay, Centrale-Supélec, ENS Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LMPS-Laboratoire de Mécanique Paris-Saclay, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Echion Technologies, Cambridge CB22 3FG, UK
Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, UK
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita' di Catania, Catania 64 95123, Italy
Present address: School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
Present address: School of Physics, CRANN & AMBER Research Centres, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin D02 E8C0, Ireland
Present address: Jaguar Land Rover, Banbury Road Gaydon, Lighthorne Heath, Warwick CV35 0RR, UK

Abstract

Despite the ever-increasing demand of nanofillers for thermal enhancement of polymer composites with higher thermal conductivity and irregular geometry, nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been constrained by the nonuniform dispersion and difficulty in constructing effective three-dimensional (3D) conduction network with low loading and desired isotropic or anisotropic (specific preferred heat conduction) performances. Herein, we illustrated the in-situ construction of CNT based 3D heat conduction networks with different directional performances. First, to in-situ construct an isotropic percolated conduction network, with spherical cores as support materials, we developed a confined-growth technique for CNT-core sea urchin (CNTSU) materials. With 21.0 wt.% CNTSU loading, the thermal conductivity of composites reached 1.43 ± 0.13 W/(m·K). Secondly, with aligned hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as an anisotropic support, we constructed CNT-hBN aligned networks by in-situ CNT growth, which improved the utilization efficiency of high density hBN and reduced the thermal interface resistance between matrix and fillers. With ~ 8.5 wt.% loading, the composites possess thermal conductivity up to 0.86 ± 0.14 W/(m·K), 374% of that for neat matrix. Due to the uniformity of CNTs in hBN network, the synergistic thermal enhancement from one-dimensional (1D) + two-dimensional (2D) hybrid materials becomes more distinct. Based on the detailed experimental evidence, the importance of purposeful production of a uniformly interconnected heat conduction 3D network with desired directional performance can be observed, particularly compared with the traditional direct-mixing method. This study opens new possibilities for the preparation of high-power-density electronics packaging and interfacial materials when both directional thermal performance and complex composite geometry are simultaneously required.

Keywords: composites, thermal conductivity, carbon nanotubes, hexagonal boron nitride, three-dimensional printing

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Publication history

Received: 19 July 2023
Revised: 08 September 2023
Accepted: 17 September 2023
Published: 09 November 2023
Issue date: November 2023

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© The Author(s) 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2018YFA0208402 and 2020YFA0714700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52172060, 51820105002, 11634014, and 51372269), Magna International, and EPSRC project “Advanced Nanotube Application and Manufacturing (ANAM) Initiative” (No. EP/M015211/1). The authors especially thank Mr. David Paul, Ms. Mingzhao Wang, Ms. Rulan Qiao, and Dr. Sarah Stevenson, for their kind support and useful discussion.

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Copyright: © 2023 by the author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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