LARGE DIAMETER CARBON FILAMENTS FROM MESOPHASE PITCH FOR THERMAL MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS

Mesophase pitch based carbon fibres can have high thermal conductivity due to the highly extended graphitic crystalline structure along the fibre axis. In this paper we report preliminary results from a study designed to develop high thermal conductivity graphitic materials. Large diameter carbon filaments of 15 μm～50 μm diameters were produced from naphthalene derived mesophase pitch. The mechanical properties of carbon filaments were shown to decrease with the increase of diameters. The electrical resistivity of carbon filaments was measured to estimate the possible thermal conductivity, which suggests that the thermal conductivity of carbon filament increase as the diameter of carbon filament increases.