Xuebing Liang

Thermal Properties of Carbon Nanotube–Copper Composites for Thermal Management Applications

Carbon nanotube–copper (CNT/Cu) composites have been successfully synthesized by means of a novel particles-compositing process followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The thermal conductivity of the composites was measured by a laser flash technique and theoretical analyzed using an effective medium approach. The experimental results showed that the thermal conductivity unusually decreased after the incorporation of CNTs. Theoretical analyses revealed that the interfacial thermal resistance between the CNTs and the Cu matrix plays a crucial role in determining the thermal conductivity of bulk composites, and only small interfacial thermal resistance can induce a significant degradation in thermal conductivity for CNT/Cu composites. The influence of sintering condition on the thermal conductivity depended on the combined effects of multiple factors, i.e. porosity, CNTs distribution and CNT kinks or twists. The composites sintered at 600°C for 5 min under 50 MPa showed the maximum thermal conductivity. CNT/Cu composites are considered to be a promising material for thermal management applications.

Thermal conductivity and microstructure of Al/diamond composites with Ti-coated diamond particles consolidated by spark plasma sintering

Metal/diamond composites have been considered as the new generation of thermal management material. The critical challenge to obtain composites with high thermal conductivity (TC) is to improve the interfacial bonding between the matrix and diamond. In the present study, a titanium coating was plated on the surface of diamond particles via vacuum evaporation–deposition, and Al/diamond composites were consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The TC and microstructure of composites, respectively, with coated and uncoated diamond particles are compared and discussed. The results show that the Ti coating can significantly increase the wetting property between Al and diamond, leading to a strong interfacial bonding. The diffusion of Ti into the matrix and the formation of TiC are detected at the Al–diamond interface. The properties of composites, respectively, with coated and uncoated diamond exhibit different trends with increasing sintering temperature or diamond volume fraction. Compared with composites with uncoated particles, the Al/Ti–diamond composites obtained the much higher relative density and TC as high as 491 W/mK. Based on the comparison between the experimental and theoretical values, it is found that the thermal conductivities of Al/Ti–diamond composites have reached or surpassed the theoretical calculations with the particle volume fraction not more than 50%.

Experimental and modeling study of the thermal conductivity of SiCp/Al composites with bimodal size distribution

The thermal conductivity of SiCp/Al composites with high volume fractions of 46 to 68% has been investigated. The composites were fabricated by pressureless infiltrating liquid aluminum into SiC preforms with monomodal and bimodal size distributions. The density measurement indicates that a small amount of pores is presented for the composites approaching their maximum volume fractions. An analytical model with an explicit expression is proposed for describing the thermal conductive behavior of the composites with multimodal-reinforced mixtures in terms of an effective medium approach taking into account the porosity effect. Predictions of the developed effective medium expression reveal good correspondence with the experimental results, and explore how each of the considered factors (i.e., particle size ratio, volume fraction ratio, and porosity) can have a significant effect on the thermal conductivity of the composites with bimodal mixtures.

Fabrication and thermal conductivity of copper matrix composites reinforced by tungsten-coated carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were coated by tungsten using metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Magnetic stirring was employed to disperse the W-coated CNTs (W-CNTs) in a Cu matrix, and then, the mixed powders were consolidated by spark plasma sintering. The W-CNTs obtained a uniform dispersion within the Cu matrix when the W-CNT content was less than 5.0vol%, but high content of W-CNTs (10vol%) resulted in the presence of clusters. The W-CNT/Cu composites containing low content of W-CNTs (<5.0vol%) exhibited a higher thermal conductivity than the sintered pure Cu, while the CNT/Cu composites exhibited no increase in thermal conductivity after the incorporation of uncoated CNTs. The W-CNT content was found to play a crucial role in determining the thermal conductivity of the W-CNT/Cu composites. The thermal conductivity of the W-CNT/Cu composites increased first and then decreased with the W-CNT content increasing. When the W-CNT content was 2.5vol%, the W-CNT/Cu composite obtained the maximum value of thermal conductivity. The thermal resistance of the (W-CNT)-Cu interface was predicted in terms of Maxwell-Garnett effective medium approximation, and its calculated value was about 3.0×10−9 m2·K·W−1.

Effective thermal conductivity of Cu/diamond composites containing connected particles

An analytical model for the thermal conductivity of Cu/diamond composites with connected particles is presented by replacement of a cluster of connected particles with an equivalent polycrystal subsequently using a multiple effective medium approach. By applying this model to the measured thermal conductivity of Cu/diamond composites prepared by high pressure high temperature sintering technique reported in the literature, we show that it quite well describes the observed thermal conductivity enhancement induced by the connected particles. We estimate the value of connected particle loading in real composites and show that large particles are easier to form the bonding contact than small particles. The present work also demonstrates that the sensitivity of thermal conductivity contribution from the connected particles strongly depends on the particle size, and their pronounced thermal conductivity enhancement should lie within the certain particle size range.

Temperature dependence of thermal conductivity in SiCp based metal–matrix composites

Abstract The authors present a theoretical investigation of the thermal conductivity of SiCp based metal–matrix composites at various temperatures from a viewpoint of heat conduction mechanism across the SiCp/matrix interface. The interfacial thermal conductance associated with the electron–phonon (e–ph) coupling and the phonon–phonon (ph–ph) coupling is characterised using a simple calculational procedure. The predictions for the composite thermal conductivity obtained by a Hasselman and Johnson model incorporated into a Majumdar’s relation reveal good correspondence with the experimental results and explore that the temperature dependent thermal conductivity is essentially governed by the competitive interaction of e–ph coupling and ph–ph coupling. This work also accounts for the temperature dependent thermal conductivity of SiCp based composites, which is sensitive to the particle size and volume fraction when these two materials properties lie within certain range.