Thermal Properties of the Hybrid Graphene-Metal Nano-Micro-Composites: Applications in Thermal Interface Materials

The authors report on synthesis and thermal properties of the electrically-conductive thermal interface materials with the hybrid graphene-metal particle fillers. The thermal conductivity of resulting composites was increased by ~500% in a temperature range from 300 K to 400 K at a small graphene loading fraction of 5-vol.-%. The unusually strong enhancement of thermal properties was attributed to the high intrinsic thermal conductivity of graphene, strong graphene coupling to matrix materials and the large range of the length-scale - from nanometers to micrometers - of the graphene and silver particle fillers. The obtained results are important for thermal management of advanced electronics and optoelectronics.