Comparison of Thermal Properties of Silicone Reinforced by Different Nanocarbon Materials

Abstract

We report, for the first time, the comparison study of different functionalized nanocarbon materials on the thermal properties of silicone rubbers. Nanocarbon materials were functionalized through carboxylation or amidation to enhance the bonding between them and the silicone matrix. Amino-functionalization can obviously improve the interfacial heat transfer between the carbon materials and the matrix. As a result, they had an obvious effect on the thermal performances of composites and were more effective in thermal conductivity enhancement. In addition, amino-functionalized graphene oxide showed the best effect of improvement, but the distribution of it in the matrix still needs to be improved.

Keywords:

• Carbon nanotubes
• Graphene
• Nanocomposites
• Silicone
• Stress transfer

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial sponsor by the fundamental research funds for the central universities (No. 10FX011) and National basic research program of China (2011CB605704 ).