Composites: Part A 57 (2014) 17

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Composites: Part A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesa

Thermal contact resistance of epoxy composites incorporated

with nano-copper particles and the multi-walled carbon nanotubes
Ping Zhang a,b, Qiang Li a, YiMin Xuan a,
a
b

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science & Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
Electromechanical Engineering College, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 17 August 2013
Received in revised form 5 October 2013
Accepted 25 October 2013
Available online 6 November 2013
Keywords:
Interface
Physical properties
Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
Microstructures

a b s t r a c t
To enhance heat transfer performance of epoxy resin as a thermal interface material (TIM), multi-walled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and nano-copper particles are incorporated into an epoxy resin to form
hybrid composites. The total thermal contact resistance (TCR) between the heated and cooled surfaces
as well as its components such as the bulk resistance (RBLT) of the TIM, and the boundary resistance
(RB) between the TIM and the joint surfaces above and below the TIM of the composites are measured.
The inuence of the compound in different proportions of MWCNTs and nano-copper particles on RBLT
and RB is discussed in detail. The results indicate that the total TCR is related not only to the thermal conductivity of the TIM, but also to the other factors such as the property of the ller, the microstructural
characterization, and the surface morphology of the TIM.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
High-performance thermal interface materials (TIMs) are in urgent needs to suppress the thermal contact resistance (TCR) between solidsolid contact interfaces for efcient thermal
management in a variety of applications. The commonly-used TIMs
such as thermal conductive grease and thermal pads, which uses
silica as ller, may not meet the requirements of high power density electronic performance due to low thermal conductivities both
of mineral oil or silicone and silica (mineral oil 0.13 W/m K, silicone 0.18 W/m K and silica 1.314 W/m K) [1]. Because of their
superior thermal, mechanical and electrical properties and excellent process capabilities, the epoxy resins have been widely used
as the matrix material in electronics industry [2]. Therefore, current investigation efforts focus on improving the thermal conductivity of the epoxy composites by incorporating with some new
reinforced solid ller of high intrinsic thermal conductivity [3],
including carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [4], CNTs array [5], graphene
[6,7], carbon ber [8], graphite [9,10] and diamond [11], etc. With
respect to the fact that the thermal conductivity of single multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) reaches to 1000 W/m K or even
higher [3,12], MWCNTs have been widely applied to be incorporated into the epoxy resin to improve the thermal conductivity of
the composites. For example, Yang et al. doped 30 vol% MWCNT
SiC hybrid ller into epoxy resin and the thermal conductivity of
epoxy composite reached about 2 W/m K [13]. Thostenson et al.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 025 84315837.
E-mail address: ymxuan@mail.njust.edu.cn (Y. Xuan).
1359-835X/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2013.10.022

doped 5 wt% MWCNTs into epoxy resin and the thermal conductivity increases 60% over that of the unreinforced epoxy [14]. Cui et al.
have fabricated an epoxy/MWCNT@SiO2 composite and the
thermal conductivity increases by 67% [15]. However, there is little
report on the quantitative study about doping of MWCNTs,
nano-copper particles and their hybrid composites into epoxy
resins to minimize the total TCR [1,16].
The total TCR at the interface after inserting a TIM between the
rough solid surfaces has two components, i.e., the bulk resistance
(RBLT) of the TIM arising from its thermal conductivity and the
boundary resistance (RB) between the TIM and the joint surfaces
above and below TIM [17,18], as shown in Fig. 1. The effectiveness
of a TIM is enhanced by high thermal conductivity and low BLT and
low RB [19]. Although RBLT can be decreased by increasing the thermal conductivity of TIMs, it is still unclear whether RB is decreased
by improving the thermal conductivity of TIMs for the total TCR.
The inuencing factors on RB are complicated, which include not
only the thermal conductivity of TIMs, but also the surface morphology, the hardness of the contact substrates, applied pressure,
the viscosity, and the uidity of the TIMs [18,19]. Therefore, by setting the same contact substrates, the applied pressure and the
bond line thickness, one can study whether RB can be decreased
by improving the thermal conductivity and changing the viscosity
of TIMs.
In this paper, we dope nano-copper particles and MWCNTs into
an epoxy in different proportions to enhance the effective heat
transfer of the epoxy. A high-precision TCR testing system, a steady-state method similar to ASTM D5470, is established to measure
RB. The thermal conductivities, the viscosity and the total TCR of

P. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 57 (2014) 17

2.3. Characterization

Fig. 1. Schematic showing the various components of thermal contact resistances

after the insertion of a TIM [18]. (For interpretation of the references to colour in
this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

the compound TIMs with the different doping proportions of nanocopper particles and MWCNTs are measured. With the TCR testing
system and the in situ measurement, RBLT and RB of the epoxy resin
composites which are doped with MWCNTs, with copper nanoparticles, and with both two composites are also studied.

2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
Raw MWCNT (r-MWNCT; purity > 98%) with the outer diameter
of 3050 nm, the inner diameter of 710 nm and length between
510 lm is supplied by Suzhou Creative-carbon Nanotechnology
Co. Ltd. (China). They are produced by the chemical vapor deposition method. The epoxy resin used is diglycidyl ether of bisphenol
A- based E-51 epoxy and provided by Hangzhou Resin Factory Co.
(China). An imidazole type curing agent of low molecular weight
polyamide 650 is also purchased from Hangzhou Resin Factory
Co. (China). Copper nano-particles (purity > 99.99%) with an particle diameter range of 200 nm1 lm are supplied by Suzhou Canfuo
Nanotech Co. Ltd. (China). All other chemical reagents are of analytical grade available from Shanghai Reagents Co. (China) and
used as-received without further purication.

2.2. Preparation of epoxy composites

Typical nano-copper/epoxy resin composites are prepared with
direct mixing and dispersing method in the different proportions of
copper nano-particles, epoxy resin, curing agent and activating
agent. Epoxy resin (diluted by a little acetone), polyamide curing
agent and activating agent are rst mixed and then dispersed in
an ultrasonic vibrator. After being mixed, they are put into a vacuum drying oven to be vacuumized, stirred and heated to 70 C
in vacuum in order to remove acetone and small molecules.
The r-MWNCT is oxidized by a mixed acid of concentrated nitric
acid/sulfuric acid (HNO3/H2SO4) treatment to introduce carboxylic
acid groups to MWCNT (i.e., MWCNTCOOH) [20]. A certain
amount of MWCNTCOOH and some acetone are added into the
epoxy resin and copper/epoxy resin composites. Then they are
ultrasonically dispersed and mixed in an ultrasonic vibrator. Subsequently, the composite are stirred and dried in a vacuum oven
at 70 C. Finally, the MWCNT/epoxy and MWCNT/nano-copper/
epoxy resin composites are obtained.

The thermal conductivities of the prepared composite samples

are measured with a Hot Disk model TPS2500S thermal constants
analyzer (Hot Disk AB, Uppsala, Sweden) at room temperature. The
hot-disk measurement has been carried out using a standard device (the transient plane source method, ISO 22007-2:2008), this
technique has been proven to be a highly effective and accurate
method to measure the thermal conductivity of various materials.
The measuring uncertainty of the experiment is about 3% from the
manufacturers specication.
The viscosity of epoxy composites at room temperature is measured by using a Brookeld viscometer (model: DV-III Ultra Rheometer). The data of viscosity is read at 5 rpm of the spindle. The
measuring uncertainty of the experiment of viscosity is about 5%
from the manufacturers specication.
Morphological structures of the sample surfaces are obtained by
using an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM XL30, Philips) and a eld emission scanning electron microscope
(FE-SEM S-4800, Hitachi). The composites are fractured in liquid
nitrogen and then the morphological structures of the cross fracture surfaces of the composites are obtained by the FE-SEM.
Based on the guidelines from the ASTM standard D5470-06 and
work done by Kempers [21], a high-precision apparatus has been
established to characterize the TCR (as shown in Fig. 2). The test
sample is placed between two located standard-material-meterbars. The temperature sensors of the two meter-bars are located
at 3, 28, 53 and 78 mm from the contact surfaces. It is important
to measure the BLT and the TCR under identical loading and thermal conditions [22]. Direct measurement of using a micrometer is
considered to measure the in situ thickness. A high-precision
hydraulic loading system controlled with closed-loop provides a
given pressure to the TIMs. To minimize the convective heat loss,
the test column is enclosed in a chamber which is made from polymethyl methacrylate and designed to withstand a vacuum level of
1.0  104 Pa.
The meter-bars in this apparatus are made from Elkonite copper-tungsten alloy 30W3 (consist of 80% tungsten and 20% of copper by weight, Vickers-hardness: 276 HV, manufactured by CMW
Inc.) with a diameter of 25 mm and the thermal conductivity is
218 3 W/m K [21]. The surfaces in contact with the specimen
are processed by electric spark to achieve a at and uniform surface. The contact surfaces are characterized by using a commercial
surface roughness measuring instrument with an rms roughness of
0.8 lm. Before the experiment, the upper and lower meter-bars are
successively cleaned with alcohol, acetone and isopropyl ketone.
The uncertainty of TCR test system is shown in Table 1, the total
uncertainty of the TCR measurement is less than 2%. During the
experiment, the heat losses of upper and lower heat ow meterbars are less than 0.4%. The repeatability in measured TCR with
pressure for dry self-contact is over 95% in cases that the exerted
pressure is larger than 1 MPa. The total TCR for dry self-contact
is 660 mm2 K/W at pressure of 1 MPa. With respect to the possible
repeatability error and ensuring the uniform BLT, 500 mesh of steel
wire mesh (about 24 lm in hole-diameter) is used to coat the TIM
onto the contact surfaces.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. The boundary resistance (RB1 + RB2) of nano-copper/epoxy
composites
For nano-copper particles lled samples, the comparison of
experimentally determined thermal conductivity values and those
predicted from Nielsen equation [23] and HamiltonCrosser

P. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 57 (2014) 17

Fig. 2. The measuring principle of TCR after the insertion of a TIM. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)

Table 1
Uncertainty in measured quantities.
Measured quantity

Uncertainty

Temperature
Temperature sensor location
Force
Meter-bar area
TIM thickness

0.003 K
5 lm
0.2% of rated load
0.05%
0.5 lm

Error analysis equation is: dz

s


Pn h @z i2
di
.
1 @xi

equation [24] are shown in Fig. 3. Nielsen equation and Hamilton

Crosser equation were used to evaluate the thermal conductivity as
a function of volume fraction (/) of spherical ller as follows.

keff km 

1 AB/
;
1  uB/

where

kp =km  1
kp =km A

and u 1

1  /max /
/2max

HamiltonCrosser equation [24],

keff km 

kp 2km  2/km  kp
;
kp 2km /km  kp

Fig. 3. Thermal conductivity and viscosity of nano-copper/epoxy composites at

room temperature. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

where keff is the effective thermal conductivity of composites, kp and

km are the thermal conductivities of the ller and matrix material, A
(geometry of particles) = 1.5, /max (maximum packing fraction) = 0.637, for randomly packed spherical particles, respectively
[25].
Fig. 3 indicates that while experimental values are in agreement
with those predicted by Nielsen equation and HamiltonCrosser
equation at low ller content. However, as ller content increases
then they begin to touch one another, Nielsen equation and HamiltonCrosser equation which are presented not by incorporating
the interface thermal resistance tend to overestimate thermal conductivity of the composite as the proportion is exceeded 50 wt%.
However, it is noted that viscosity increases rapidly at ller weight
fraction between 50 and 70 wt%, it is due to not good wetting between nano-particles and polymer, and critical concentration
reaches at this region. Due to the nano-particles cannot be inltrated completely in the resin, then an apparent degradation in
the thermal conductivity enhancement induced by the interface
thermal resistance of nano-particles [26]. The maximal value of
the thermal conductivity is found in the composite lled with
70 wt% nano-copper which is 2.9 times than that of the epoxy
alone.
Fig. 4 shows the total TCR, RBLT and RB1 + RB2 of epoxy composites lled with different nano-copper proportions in weight at
1 MPa pressure loading. In this case, as shown in Fig. 3, the thermal
conductivity is approximately improved linearly with increasing
the proportions of the nano-copper ller. The noticeable decrease
of the total TCR is observed in the epoxy composites lled with
nano-copper. RBLT can be calculated by using the BLT (6 1 lm)
which is measured with the in situ direct measurement at 1 MPa
pressure loading, and the thermal conductivities of the nanocopper/epoxy composites which lled with different nano-copper proportions in weight. Then, RB1 + RB2 can be obtained by the
subtraction of the total TCR at 1 MPa pressure loading and the calculated values. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that the measured total
TCR decreases from 28.7 to 11.5 mm2 K/W as the nano-copper proportions in weight increases. The minimal value of 11.5 mm2 K/W
is found in composite lled with 70 wt% nano-copper particles and
it is much less than 31 mm2 K/W at a pressure of 0.445 MPa, which
was measured by CNT arrays (CuCNTSi, 7 lm in height) in reports [28]. Additionally, each RB1 + RB2 of the epoxy composite
lled with different proportions of nano-copper is about
2 mm2 K/W, which amounts to less than 15% of the total TCR.

P. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 57 (2014) 17

keff
/p kc =km
1
3 p 2aK kc
km
dkm

Fig. 4. RBLT and RB1 + RB2 of the epoxy composites lled with different nano-copper
proportions in weight at 1 MPa pressure loading (the BLT is about 6 lm). (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.)

Although the uidity decreases with increasing ller content,

RB1 + RB2 can be minimized by the resin-inltrated nano-particles
and these elastomers can improve the contact quality of the interfaces between the TIM and the rough surface under a pressure.
Considering the measurement uncertainties of the BLT, the thermal
conductivities, and the TCR, the effect of nano-copper proportions
in weight on RB1 + RB2 can be neglected.
3.2. The boundary resistance (RB1 + RB2) of MWCNT/epoxy composites
Fig. 5 shows the ESEM micrograph of the epoxy composites containing 5 wt% MWCNTs, 10 wt% MWCNTs, 15 wt% MWCNTs, and
the FE-SEM micrograph of the epoxy composites containing
25 wt% MWCNTs. Obviously, the MWCNT terminals of the composites are exposed more and more as the MWCNT lled content
increases.
The higher thermal conductivity of epoxy composite with the
addition of MWCNTs is obtained and the maximum value is found
in the epoxy composite lled with 15 wt% MWCNTs, which are
similar to those from other groups [1315]. To investigate the
enhancement of the thermal conductivity by adding MWCNTs,
the experimental results were compared with the theoretical values which are predicted by Nans model equation [26]:

where / is the volume fraction of the nanotubes, keff is the effective

thermal conductivity of the composites, km is the thermal
conductivity of the epoxy resin (0.18 W/m K), kc is the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube (2500 W/m K), aK is the Kapitza radius
(Rk  km, Rk interface thermal resistance between CNTs and matrix
5  106 m2 K/W) and p is the aspect ratio of CNTs (1000), d is
the diameter of the nanotubes.
The theoretical thermal conductivity value was presented in
Fig. 6a, and the model considers the interface effect of CNTs and
polymer matrix on thermal transport property. It is noted that viscosity increases rapidly and a dramatic degradation in the thermal
conductivity at ller weight fraction between 15 and 25 wt%. This
phenomenon results from the fact that increase in MWCNT mass
augments the viscosity of the compound materials and the nanotubes are agglomerated into large clumps of black powder [14].
Then the dramatic degradation induced by the interface thermal
resistance of MWCNTs and the calculated results of Rk are 5, 10,
40 mm2 K/W by the Nans model, separately. The interfacial effect
has suggested that the MWCNTs embedded in a polymer matrix
are the main limiting factor in the enhancement of thermal conductivity in MWCNTs/polymer composites [27]. At the same time,
each RB1 + RB2 of the epoxy composite lled with different proportions of MWCNTs is signicant and amounts to 50% at least (as
shown in Fig. 6b). Compared with the total TCR value of 19.8
100 mm2 K/W with the CNT array TIMs [2830], the recently discovered high elastic modulus and high strength of CNTs [31] may
cause the deterioration of the RB1 + RB2. Additionally, the inuence
of the nanoscale structure of the tube, the structure of the nanocomposite, and properties of the nanotube/matrix interface will
also affect the boundary resistance between the meter-bars substrates and the TIMs [14,16].
3.3. The boundary resistance (RB1 + RB2) of MWCNT/nano-copper/
epoxy composites
To enhance the heat transfer among the nano-particles,
MWCNTs are incorporated into a nano-copper/epoxy resin
compound matrix. With respect to the effects of the shear modulus, the uidity, and good adhesive force of the TIMs, the nano-cop-

Fig. 5. ESEM micrograph of the epoxy composites containing 5 wt% MWCNTs (a), 10 wt% MWCNTs (b), 15 wt% MWCNTs (c). (d) FE-SEM micrograph of the epoxy composites
containing 25 wt% MWCNTs.

P. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 57 (2014) 17

Fig. 6. (a) Thermal conductivity and viscosity of MWCNT/epoxy composite at room temperature. (b) The two components of the MWCNT/epoxy composite TCR at room
temperature (the BLT is about 6 lm). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

per proportion of the matrix epoxy resin composite is set to be

40 wt%.
Fig. 7a and b shows the SEM surface micrograph of the matrix
epoxy composite lled with 0.1 wt% MWCNTs and 10 wt%
MWCNTs. The SEM surface micrograph of the matrix epoxy composite lled with 2.5 wt% MWCNTs is shown in both Fig. 7c and
d. As shown in these gures, at the surface of the composite, the
more MWCNT terminals are exposed as the lled MWCNT content
increases. Because of the high elastic modulus and high strength of
the MWCNT [31], the structure induced by the exposed MWCNT
cross terminals may cause a possible complicated effect on
RB1 + RB2.
To investigate the enhancement of the thermal conductivity by
adding hybrid llers, the experimental results are compared with

the theoretical values which are predicted by the hybrid model

equation [7].



eff
a eff

1 fc kCNT =km =3 2fcu  0:001 kcu =km =3
k

km
1  2f c fcu =3
eff

kCNT

2RK

eff

kcu

2RK

kCNT
CNT kCNT =lc 1

kcu
k
cu cu =dcu 1

where k is the resultant effective thermal conductivity of the composites, subscripts CNT, cu, and eff represent the CNT, nano-copper,

Fig. 7. (a) Surface SEM micrographs of the matrix composite lled with 0.1 wt% MWCNTs. (b) Surface SEM micrographs of the matrix composite lled with 10 wt% MWCNTs.
(c) Surface SEM micrographs of the matrix composite lled with 2.5 wt% MWCNTs. (d) The partial magnication of the read areas of (c). (For interpretation of the references to
colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

P. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 57 (2014) 17

Fig. 8. Thermal conductivity and viscosity of MWCNT/nano-copper/epoxy composite at room temperature (nano-copper/epoxy composite matrix material lled
with 40 wt% nano-copper particles). (For interpretation of the references to colour
in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

and the effective thermal conductivity, respectively; lc and dcu are

the length and diameter of the MWCNT and nano-copper particle,
respectively; fc and fcu are the volume fraction of the nanotubes
and nano-copper particle, respectively; km is the thermal conductivity of the epoxy resin (0.18 W/m K), kcu is the thermal conductivity
of carbon nanotube (2500 W/m K), kcu is the thermal conductivity of
copper (401 W/m K); the tting parameter a is 0.87 [7];
RK CNT and RK cu (RK cu  2:3  107 m2 K=W) are the ller-matrix
interfacial thermal resistances, respectively.
The theoretical value of the thermal conductivity, the measured
thermal conductivity, and viscosity data of the MWCNT/nano-copper/epoxy composites are illustrated in Fig. 8. The thermal conductivity and the viscosity of these composite samples are improved
with increasing the MWCNT content. The maximal value of the
thermal conductivity is found in the composite lled with 15 wt%
MWCNTs. The thermal conductivity of the composite reaches the
peak value that is 3.2 times that of the epoxy alone by adding
15 wt% MWCNTs into the matrix nano-copper/epoxy material.
Similarly, as a result of the increase of the viscosity, the thermal

conductivity of the nano-copper/epoxy composites lled with the

MWCNTs decreases from 0.58 to 0.24 W/m K as the proportion increases from 15 to 20 wt%. For these volume fractions of nanotubes, the calculated results of the ller-matrix interfacial
thermal resistances of MWCNTs are 10, 40, and 1000 mm2 K/W obtained from the hybrid model, respectively. The reason may be that
the increased MWCNT mass augments the viscosity of the polymer
materials and leads to the agglomeration of MWCNTs [32], nanoparticles and base materials. Therefore, the composite presents a
powdery structure, the deterioration of thermal conductivity of
the composite is caused.
The morphological study of the fracture surface of the composite with a FE-SEM is illustrated in Fig. 9. It can be learnt that the
increased MWCNT mass augments the viscosity of the polymer
materials and leads to the agglomeration of MWCNTs, nano-particles and base materials.
Fig. 10 illustrates the total TCR, RBLT, and RB1 + RB2 for the samples of the MWCNT/nano-copper/epoxy composites with different
MWCNT proportions in weight. The measurement is conducted under 1 MPa pressure loading. Similarly, RBLT can be calculated by
using the BLT (5 1 lm) measured with the in situ direct measurement at 1 MPa pressure loading. As shown in Fig. 10, the total TCR
of the composite increases from 15.1 to 77.5 mm2 K/W as the lled
proportions of MWCNTs increase. The total TCR increases with
MWCNT content since the MWCNT deteriorates the quality of
the interface between the composite and the rough surfaces, and
slightly increases RB1 + RB2. The sum of these two thermal resistance increases from the 2.1 to 60 mm2 K/W as the lled proportions of MWCNTs increase. The ratio of RB1 + RB2 to the total TCR
increases from 13.5% to 77.4% with increasing the lled MWCNT
content. It is evidently that the added MWCNT plays a considerable
role in increase of RB1 + RB2 between the contact substrates and the
composite, which causes the deterioration of the total TCR.
Although the thermal conductivity increases as increasing
MWCNTs, RBLT is not obviously reduced because of the property
of ller, the decreased uidity and interface condition between
the contact substrate and the composite.
It is emphasized that the thermal conductivity is enhanced by
adding some MWCNTs, but the total TCR of the MWCNT/nano-cop-

Fig. 9. (a) FE-SEM micrograph of the epoxy composite containing 15 wt% MWCNTs + 34 wt% nano-copper. (b) The partial magnication of the red areas of (a). Note that
MWCNTs (solid arrows) are agglomerating adjacent nano-copper (dotted arrows), the blue areas are glomeration. (c and d) FE-SEM micrograph of the epoxy composite
containing 20 wt% MWCNTs + 34 wt% nano-copper. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

P. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 57 (2014) 17

Fig. 10. RBLT and RB1 + RB2 of the nano-copper/epoxy resin composites lled with
different MWCNT proportions in weight at 1 MPa pressure loading (the BLT is about
5 lm). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

per/epoxy composite may not be minimized in quantity compared

with that of nano-copper/epoxy composite. As pointed out by
other investigators [1,16], the total TCR may be suppressed by only
improving the thermal conductivity of the composite and a various
relevant factors should be taken into account.
4. Conclusions
The thermal contact features of epoxy resin-based composites
mixed with MWCNTs and nano-copper particles have been studied. To quantitatively verify the inuence of doping proportion of
MWCNTs, nano-copper particles and their hybrid composite on
RB, variations of the total TCR of these composites with a series
of the doping proportions of these ingredients have been experimentally studied. Meanwhile, the thermal conductivities and the
viscosity of the composites have also been measured. The results
have manifested that the total TCR of the TIM is related not only
to the thermal conductivity of the TIM, but also to the other factors
such as the property of ller, the microstructural characterization
and the surface morphology of the composite. For example, the
thermal conductivities of the composites can amount to 3.2 and
2.9 times that of the epoxy alone by adding 15 wt% MWCNTs and
34 wt% nano-copper particles or 70 wt% nano-copper particles to
epoxy resin, respectively. Compared with the nano-copper/epoxy
composite, however, the total TCR of the MWCNT composites is
remarkable due to the higher RB for the high elasticity modulus
of the MWCNTs and the agglomeration of MWCNTs with nanoparticles. The minimum total TCR is obtained as 11.5 mm2 K/W (dry
self-contact: 660 mm2 K/W) with the composite lled with
70 wt% nano-copper.
Acknowledgment
This work is sponsored by the National Science Foundation of
China (Grant Nos. 51225602, and 51336003).
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