Fabrication and thermal conduction mechanism of epoxy/modified SiCNP polymer composites

To protect electronic components from being affected by heat, and improve the reliability, performance and lifetime of electronic devices, exploitation of thermally conductive polymer composites should be highlighted. Herein, we report on functionalized silicon carbide nanoparticles (SiCNPs) in polymer to fabricate an epoxy/SiCNP composite with a high thermal conductivity of 0.79 W m^-1K^-1. Some schematic models were employed to demonstrate that the introduced SiCNPs forms thermally conductive networks at the filler loading above the percolation threshold, which is regard as the primary factor of thermal conductivity improvement for the composites. This work paves a way for preparing high thermally conductive polymer composites to address the heat-management issue.