Preparation technologies for polymer composites with high-directional thermal conductivity: A review

With the rapid development of science and technology, electronic devices are moving towards miniaturization and integration, which brings high heat dissipation requirements. During the heat dissipation process of a heating element, heat may spread to adjacent components, causing a decrease in the performance of the element. To avoid this situation, the ability to directionally transfer heat energy is urgently needed. Therefore, thermal interface materials (TIMs) with directional high thermal conductivity are more critical in thermal management system of electronic devices. For decades, many efforts have been devoted to the design and fabrication of TIMs with high-directional thermal conductivity. Benefiting from the advantage in feasibility, low-cost and scalability, compositing with thermal conductive fillers has been proved to be promising strategy for fabricating the high-directional thermal conductive TIMs. This review summarizes the present preparation technologies of polymer composites with high-directional thermal conductivity based on structural engineering of thermal conductive fillers, focusing on the manufacturing process, mechanisms, achievements, advantages and disadvantages of different technologies. Finally, we summarize the existing problems and potential challenges in the field of directional high thermal conductivity composites.