Anisotropic Thermal Interface Materials: Directional Heat Transfer in Uniaxially Oriented Liquid Crystal Networks

For the development of anisotropic thermal interface materials (TIMs), a rod-shaped reactive monomer PNP-6MA is newly designed and successfully synthesized. PNP-6MA reveals a smectic A (SmA) mesophase between crystalline (K) and isotropic (I) phases. PNP-6MA can be oriented under a magnetic field (B = 2 T), and its macroscopic orientation can be robustly stabilized by in situ polymerization. Even without macroscopic orientations, the fabricated thermal conducting liquid crystal (TCLC) films show the outstanding thermal conductivity of 1.21 W/m K, which is higher than conventional organic materials. The thermal conductivity of uniaxially and macroscopically oriented TCLC films can be 2.5 W/m K along the long axis of mesogenic core. The newly developed TCLC film can be used as a TIM between a high-power light-emitting diode and a heat sink.