Thermal management applied laminar composites with SiC nanowires enhanced interface bonding strength and thermal conductivity

Design and fabrication of oriented thermal management materials has great significance in meeting the requirements of high-power heat dissipation device applications. To synchronously improve the structure stability and thermal management performance, in this study, large-scale silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires were deposited on the graphite film (GF) surface to reinforce the aluminum-based laminar composites. Highly thermally conductive SiCnws-GF multiscale architecture reinforced Al laminar composites with enhanced interlayer bonding strength were achieved by an innovative pressure infiltration strategy. The embedding of the silicon carbide nanowires not only improved the thermal conductivity of the laminar composites but also enhanced the interface bonding strength between the Al matrix and the SiCnws-GF multiscale structure robustly. The interlaminar shear strength of the SiCnws-GF reinforced Al laminar composites was 134.1 MPa, which was 2.4 times the value of GF reinforced Al composites. The in-plane thermal conductivity of the best-performing SiCnws-GF reinforced Al laminar composites was 868.9 W (m K)-1, which was 16.9% higher than the value of the GF reinforced Al laminar composites. The outstanding interlaminar shear strength and superior thermal conductivity of the SiCnws-GF reinforced Al laminar composites revealed that a potential and competitive thermal management material was obtained.