Carbon nanotube/graphene composites as thermal interface materials for electronic devices

Abstract

A thermal interface composite comprised of carbon nanotubes and graphene has been used to construct thermally conducting pads as thermal management devices for dissipating heat in electronic devices. These thermal pads exhibit high thermal conductivities (∼T1692708 W/mK), with a series of experiments in commercial smartphone devices resulting in improved heat dissipation performance relative to commercial thermal silicone grease. Incorporation of these thermal composite pads into a continuously operating smartphone significantly reduced the temperature of its CPU and back cover over time, resulting in a reduction in energy consumption that enhanced battery lifetime by as much as 21 min.

Keywords:

• Carbon nanotubes
• graphene
• heat-dissipation
• thermal heat pad
• silicone grease

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project grant No. 51305307).