Thermal Conductivity Enhancement of Graphene Epoxy Nanocomposite

摘要

In this study graphene was introduced in the epoxy matrix for the enhancement of thermal conductivity properties. Dispersion of grpahene is a crucial step in nanocomposite processing. Therefore, it is important to tackle issues regarding dispersion in order to get homogenous graphene dispersion in the epoxy matrix. In this paper, we have varied the stirring speed in order to understand its effects on enhancing the thermal conductivity values of the composites. Results have shown that the thermal conductivity increased up to 17.5% with 1.5% weight loading of graphene that was stirred at 1500 rpm stirring speed. The experiment results were then compared to a theoretical calculation by Maxwell model. Maxwell model can only predict the thermal conductivity of composites for small volume fraction of filler. As the filler loading used in this study was only up to 1.5 wt. %, Maxwell model is suitable to be used.