Micro-scale Aluminium Filled Polymer Composites with Improved Mechanical and Thermal Properties via Hot-pressing

Polymer based thermal interface materials are widely utilized in aeronautical and aerospace equipment, and can significantly contribute to the cooling of devices, which depends on their high thermal conductivities. In this work, a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) based composite with micro-scale aluminium particles is fabricated. The aluminium particles were successfully imbedded into the PVDF matrix, and the composite possesses dense structure caused by the hot-pressing process. Benefiting from that, the value of thermal conductivity improves to 1.82 W/(mK), which is 767% higher than that on pristine PVDF. Meanwhile, compared with pristine polymer, the mechanical performances, including tensile strength and modulus, are also significantly improved by 99% and 517%, respectively. The phenomenon can be attributed to the dense inner structure and effective heat transfer pathways of aluminium particles. This simple and effective strategy provides an available method to fabricate the thermoplastic polymeric composite with superior thermal and mechanical properties, used for the high-performance aeronautical and aerospace equipment.