Abstract
Polymeric nanocomposite materials that are highly thermally conductive are important to a variety of applications, with examples ranging from flexible radiators in space to high-performance aircrafts and vehicles and to cutting-edge electronics. Among widely used nanoscale fillers in the development of these materials are carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets. As concluded in previous reviews, the performance of carbon nanotubes for imparting high thermal conductivity into polymeric matrices was generally poor. Here recent results associated with the effort on significant performance improvements are reviewed as an update. By contrast, graphene sheets have emerged as effective nanoscale fillers for polymeric nanocomposites of excellent thermal transport performance, reaching levels that are competitive to those achieved by metals. The significant recent results on thermally conductive polymeric nanocomposites with graphene sheets are highlighted, and their potential applications and issues on their further performance improvements are discussed.
About the authors
Wei-Li Song has been pursuing his PhD in Material Science and Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology (Beijing, China) since 2007, under the supervision of Prof. Mao-Sheng Cao. Since 2010, he has been a visiting student in Prof. Ya-Ping Sun’s group in the Department of Chemistry at Clemson University. His research focuses on the development of nanomaterials and nanocomposites for thermal, electrical, and electromagnetic properties and applications.
Dr. L. Monica Veca received her PhD in Chemistry from Clemson University in 2009, under the mentorship of Prof. Ya-Ping Sun. Thereafter, she joined the National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies IMT-Bucharest as a scientist in the Laboratory for Molecular Nanotechnology. Her research focuses on the development of carbon-based nanoscale functional materials for optoelectronic applications, and on the molecular assembly of nanomaterials and organic molecules.
Ankoma Anderson, a native of Greenwood, South Carolina, received his BS degree in Chemistry from Lander University in 2009. He is presently a PhD graduate student in the Department of Chemistry at Clemson University with Prof. Ya-Ping Sun as the major research advisor. His research focuses primarily on the development of light-weight high-performance nanocomposite materials.
Prof. Mao-Sheng Cao received his MS degree (1988) from Harbin Engineering University and PhD (1998) from Harbin Institute of Technology (both in Harbin, China). His postdoctoral training was at Tsinghua University (Beijing, China). He was hired as a faculty member at Harbin Engineering University in 1995 and promoted to full professor in 1996. In 2003, he joined Beijing Institute of Technology (Beijing, China) as a professor. His research focuses on the physical properties of low-dimensional materials for dielectric and electromagnetic applications.
Dr. Li Cao received his PhD in Condensed Matter Physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. Since 2006, he has been conducting nanotechnology research with Prof. Ya-Ping Sun in the Department of Chemistry at Clemson University. His research focuses on optical, electronic, and thermal properties of nanostructured materials and their various applications.
Prof. Ya-Ping Sun received his PhD at Florida State University in 1989. After postdoctoral training at the University of Texas at Austin, he joined the Clemson faculty as an assistant professor in 1992 and was promoted to full professor in 1999. Since 2003, he has been the endowed Frank Henry Leslie Chair Professor of Natural and Physical Sciences. His research focuses on the development of nanomaterials and other novel materials for various technological applications.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
