Particle Packing Theory Guided Thermal Conductive Polymer Preparation and Related Properties

Thermal conductive polymer composites are satisfying for thermal management of electronic devices. However, how to choose the sizes of thermal conductive fillers to get a high thermal conductivity of composites are still clueless and poor filler size matching will also affect the processability of the composites. Closest packing model was used to guide multiscale thermal conductive particles filling silicone rubber in this work. A highest thermal conductivity of 1.381 W·m-1·K-1 at filler loading of 50 vol % was determined among nine comparing formulations. The fillers with small particle size filled the interspaces of fillers with large particle size to form more complete thermal conduction paths and heat dissipation was increased. The apparent densities and rheological tests further verified the effectiveness of closest packing model. This study provides theoretical guidance for thermal conductive polymer composites to achieve high thermal conductivity and good processability, which has an important practical application.