Comparison of the thermal properties between composites reinforced by raw and amino-functionalized carbon materials

Carbon materials, such as graphite oxides, carbon nanotubes and graphenes, have exceptional thermal conductivity, which render them excellent candidates as fillers in advanced thermal interface materials for high density electronics. In this paper, these carbon materials were functionalized with 4,4′-diaminodiphenyl sulphone (DDS), to enhance the bonding between the carbon materials and the resin matrix. Their visibly different properties were investigated. It seems that DDS-functionalization can obviously improve the interfacial heat transfer between the carbon materials and the epoxy matrix. The thermal conductivity enhancement of D-Graphene composites (0.493 W/m K) was about 30% higher than that of D-MWNTs composites (0.387 W/m K) at 0.5 vol.% loading. The different effects among EGO, D-EGO, MWNTs, D-MWNTs and D-Graphene in polymer composites were also discussed. It was demonstrated that DDS-functionalized carbon materials had an obvious effect on the thermal performances of composite materials and were more effective in thermal conductivity enhancement.