Effect of filler loading, geometry, dispersion and temperature on thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposites

Abstract

Using a unidirectional heat transfer apparatus, the roles of nanoparticle geometry, loading, dispersion and temperature on the thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposites are investigated. The polymer nanocomposites (PNC) consist of epoxy matrices filled with silica nanopowder and carbon nanotubes, respectively, as well as poly (2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) matrices loaded with silica nanoparticles. First, it is shown that thermal conductivity generally increases with nanofiller loading. These results are also reasonably described by the three phase Lewis-Nielsen or Halpin-Tsai analytical models. More importantly, it has been also demonstrated that the thermal conductivity of the polymer nanocmposites greatly depends on the dispersion state of the nanofillers. Furthermore, the effect of temperature on the thermal behavior of PNCs is briefly discussed. These results emphasize the important role of nanoparticles content and dispersion state on the thermal characteristics of polymer nanocomposites, which can be used to design composite materials with tunable thermal behavior.

Recent Studies on the Multiscale Analysis of Polymer Nanocomposites

“…Also, many studies have been carried out to predict not only mechanical properties, but also electrical properties [57][58][59][60][61][62][63], like electrical conductivity [35,59,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76], and dielectric permittivity [70,71,77]. Studies for the analysis of thermal properties have also been conducted, such as thermal conductivity [40,61,[78][79][80][81], and thermal expansion coefficient [82,83]. Moreover, the proposed models were used to investigate the following phenomena of the polymer nanocomposites.…”

“…Moreover, the proposed models were used to investigate the following phenomena of the polymer nanocomposites. By applying the continuum approach, the behavior of the polymer nanocomposites was studied by investigating the effects of interphase property [38,40,41,44,[48][49][50][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94], nano filler size dependency [38,41,81,94], nano filler distribution [76,81,95], nano filler aggregation [91,92,96,97], and nano filler morphology [48].…”

“…Tesseme et al analyzed the effect of nanofiller loading, geometry, and dispersion on the thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposites. They confirmed that the dispersion state of nanoparticles has a major influence on the thermal characteristics of polymer nanocomposites [81]. Zakaria et al calculated the Young's modulus of nanocomposites by finite element analysis, considering the interphase percolation and size effect of nanoparticles [41].…”

Size, Concentration and Content Effect of Copper/Graphite Hybrid Dopant on Mechanical, Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Characteristics of Unsaturated Polyester Resin

“…The Hashin-Shtrikman [10] and the Lewis-Nielsen [1,2,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] models are also investigated. For 3-phase system Lewis-Nielsen model has been extended as modified Lewis-Nielsen model and provides good convergence with the experimental hybrid systems [18][19][20]. Badakhsh and Park [19] investigated the thermal and mechanical properties of highdensity polyethylene (HDPE)-matrix reinforced coppercarbon nanotube filler composite.…”

Epoxy matrix composites reinforced with purified carbon nanotubes for thermal management applications

“…Unfortunately, it remains unclear what factors determine the thermal properties of derived polymer matrix composites, since no improvement has also been stated in the literature. 29,30 Multiple intrinsic factors appear to be of great importance in composite thermal properties, such as the degree of dispersion, 31,32 the type and dimensions of carbon nanotubes, 33,34 loading and alignment of the filler, 12,35 and interfacial thermal resistance. [36][37][38][39] While each of these intrinsic factors may play an important role in the thermal properties of polymer matrix composites, the importance of carbon nanotube purification treatment cannot be underestimated.…”