Scalable synthesis of mono-dispersed nickel nanoparticles and their application as thermal conductive fillers

With the rapid development of the electronic industry, it is critical for electronic packaging industry to develop superior materials with high thermal conductivity and lower cost, so as to dissipate heat from the central components. Metallic materials are compelling in thermal conductivity application over decades. However, it is still a great challenge to synthetize metal nanomaterials which have specific structure. Here we report a one-step method to synthesis mono-dispersed nickel nanoparticles with durian structure in a large scale. These nickel nanoparticles can be prepared by mixing the nickel salts, reducing agents, coupling agents and nucleating agent in aqueous solution. The morphology of the nanoparticles can be well controlled by adjusting the reaction parameters. The average size of these nanoparticles is about 100 nm and extremely uniform. These nickel nanoparticles possess uniform cone-shape surface structure, which can provide excellent interconnection ability among themselves. Results show that, the thermal conductivity of the sample which nickel filler content of about 80 wt% embedded in a thermosetting-type insulating polymer resin reached 0.49 W·m
^-1
·K
^-1
. Due to the unique durian-like morphology, facile and efficiency synthetic method, and prominent thermal conductivity, the nickel nanoparticles can be widely used in some relatively low-end and large-scale applications of heat conductivity, such as high-power electrical heat sink, LED plastic shell, wireless signal base station.