Thermal conductive polymer cools electronic devices

Polymer materials are insulating and insulating materials. But by applying an electrolytic polymerization process to produce bonding arrays of polymer nanofibers, the researchers developed an insulating material that could conduct heat 20 times better than the original polymer. New materials can work very well at high temperatures up to 2000C.

New insulation materials that can be used to transfer heat away from electronic devices will be used in manufacturing high-brightness servers, cars and LEDs.

Amorphous polymer materials are poor conductors of heat because their discrete state limits the transfer of heat conducting phonons. The transmission of these phonons can be improved by creating a crystalline structure in the polymers, but the structures formed through a filamentous process can make the materials brittle and fragile.

Scientists study heat conduction polymer

New materials are produced from a synthetic polymer - polythiophene . The polymer chains linked in nanofibers are suitable for transferring phonons, the crystal structure is not brittle. The formation of nanofibers produces an amorphous material with a thermal conductivity of up to 4.4 watts per Kelvin meter at room temperature.

The structures are formed in a multi-step process, starting with an aluminum sample with many small holes covered by an electrolyte containing monomer precursors . When an electric potential is applied to the sample, the electrode at the bottom of each hole will absorb the monomers and begin to form hollow nanowires.

After the formation of monomer chains, nanofibers are cross-linked by an electrolytic polymerization process and discard the sample. The resulting structure can be attached to electronic devices via a liquid such as water or solvent, transmitted into fibers and creates adhesion through capillary action and van der Waals force.

Although this technique still requires continued development and not fully explained in theory, scientists still believe that it can be expanded and commercialized.

Samples of materials were tested at temperatures up to 2000C through 80 thermal cycles without any differences detected during operation.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the CBET-113.071 award, funded by the Georgia Technology Center for organic photonics - electronics and an NSF-IGERT graduate scholarship.