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The polymer-based thermal interface materials with improved thermal conductivity, compression resilience, and electromagnetic interference shielding performance by introducing uniformly melamine foam

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Abstract

Polymer-based thermal interface materials (TIMs) have been widely used in electronics to enhance heat transfer through the chip to heat sink. However, it remains a severe challenge to build the efficient phonon transfer pathways for improving the thermal conductivity and heat dissipation ability to cope with the increasing power density. Nowadays, TIMs with introduced template have attracted a great deal of attention because of the continuously three-dimensional (3D) structures. Herein, the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with 3D networks was fabricated through the self-sacrificing template of melamine foam. Meanwhile, the reduced graphene oxide/natural rubber (rGO/NR) TIMs were prepared by the vacuum-assisted infiltration approach. As a result, the obtained TIMs exhibited the improved thermal conductivity (1.53 W m−1 K−1) and the good electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance (26 dB) in X band at the filler content of 1.15 vol%. The results proved that rGO/NR TIMs successfully achieved the balance performance between the thermal conductivity and EMI shielding performance, indicating a bright prospect in the application of next-generation electronics. More importantly, this strategy can provide valuable guideline for designing TIMs with the excellent comprehensive performance for the thermal management.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52130303), Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (Grant No. 20210302124430) and the Fund Program for the Scientific Activities of Selected Returned Overseas Professionals in Shanxi Province (Grant No. 20230016).

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  1. Dong An and Yucheng Chen contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanxi Key Laboratory of Nano-Functional Composite Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China

    Dong An, Yucheng Chen, Rizheng He, Yaqing Liu & Qingsong Lian

  2. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Dong An, Huitao Yu & Wei Feng

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Zhijian Sun, Yifan Liu & Chingping Wong

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  1. Dong An
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Contributions

Dong An: conceptualization, formal analysis, writing—original draft, Yucheng Chen: investigation, Rizheng He: investigation, Huitao Yu: formal analysis, Zhijian Sun: formal analysis, Yifan Liu: formal analysis, Yaqing Liu: supervision, Qingsong Lian: formal analysis, Wei Feng: supervision, Chingping Wong: supervision.

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Correspondence to Yaqing Liu or Wei Feng.

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An, D., Chen, Y., He, R. et al. The polymer-based thermal interface materials with improved thermal conductivity, compression resilience, and electromagnetic interference shielding performance by introducing uniformly melamine foam. Adv Compos Hybrid Mater 6, 136 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-023-00709-1

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