Thermal conductivity enhancement of CNT/MoS2/graphene-epoxy nanocomposites based on structural synergistic effects and interpenetrating network

Efficient thermal management is becoming a global challenge with the rapid development of modern electronics. Therefore, conventional thermally conductive nanocomposites exhibit severe interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) generated at the interfaces of loaded thermally conductive components. Here, we design and synthesize a low-ITR carbon nanotube (CNT)/MoS2/graphene heterostructure in which the novel properties of highly thermally conductive CNTs, MoS2, and graphene are synergistically integrated into the final nanocomposite. During the hydrothermal reaction process, MoS2 and graphene are grown and wrapped on CNTs which ensure better interfacial contact. The CNTs act as a structural skeleton and heat transfer channel for effective heat collection from the large-surface-area MoS2 and graphene nanosheets. MoS2 which has good wetting properties further reduces the ITR between the heterostructure filler and polymer matrix; thus, a high-efficiency heat transfer channel of epoxy-graphene-MoS2-CNT is prepared. The synthesized CNT/MoS2/graphene-epoxy nano-composite shows a much lower ITR of 8.3 x 10(6) K W-1 than a CNT-epoxy nanocomposite (3.98 X 10(7)K W-1) and a CNT/MoS2-epoxy nanocomposite (1.9 x 10(7) K W-1), Consequently, the thermal conductivity is improved from 2.0 W m(-1) k(-1) to 4.6 W m(-1) k(-1), which is 2300% of that of the pure epoxy resin. The factors affecting ITR and thermal conductive properties are analyzed. Our findings may contribute to the development of new types of high-performance thermal management materials.