Silver nanowire array-polymer composite as thermal interface material
Abstract
Silver nanowire arrays embedded inside polycarbonate templates are investigated as a viable thermal interface material for electronic cooling applications. The composite shows an average thermal diffusivity value of 1.89×10-5 m2 s-1, which resulted in an intrinsic thermal conductivity of 30.3 W m-1 K-1. The nanowires' protrusion from the film surface enables it to conform to the surface roughness to make a better thermal contact. This resulted in a 61% reduction in thermal impedance when compared with blank polymer. An ∼30 nm Au film on the top of the composite was found to act as a heat spreader, reducing the thermal impedance further by 35%. A contact impedance model was employed to compare the contact impedance of aligned silver nanowire-polymer composites with that of aligned carbon nanotubes, which showed that the Young's modulus of the composite is the defining factor in the overall thermal impedance of these composites.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Applied Physics
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.3271149
- Bibcode:
- 2009JAP...106l4310X
- Keywords:
-
- carbon nanotubes;
- composite material interfaces;
- gold;
- metallic thin films;
- nanocomposites;
- nanowires;
- polymers;
- silver;
- surface roughness;
- thermal conductivity;
- thermal diffusivity;
- Young's modulus;
- 66.30.Xj;
- 66.70.Lm;
- 81.16.-c;
- 81.40.Jj;
- 62.20.de;
- 68.35.Gy;
- Thermal diffusivity;
- Other systems such as ionic crystals molecular crystals nanotubes etc.;
- Methods of nanofabrication and processing;
- Elasticity and anelasticity stress-strain relations;
- Elastic moduli;
- Mechanical properties;
- surface strains