Thermal properties of the hybrid graphene-metal nano-micro-composites: Applications in thermal interface materials

The authors report on synthesis and thermal properties of the electrically conductive thermal interface materials with the hybrid graphene-metal particle fillers. The thermal conductivity of resulting composites was increased by similar to 500% in a temperature range from 300K to 400K at a small graphene loading fraction of 5-vol.-%. The unusually strong enhancement of thermal properties was attributed to the high intrinsic thermal conductivity of graphene, strong graphene coupling to matrix materials, and the large range of the length-scale-from nanometers to micrometers-of the graphene and silver particle fillers. The obtained results are important for the thermal management of advanced electronics and optoelectronics. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3687173]