journal article·2026-03

Yield‐Stress Composite Fluids With High Thermal Conductivity and Tunable Rheology via Hierarchical Filler Architecture

Shujun Cai, Jianfeng Fan, Jiahui Wang, Yabiao Ma, Yuanyuan Xiao, Siyuan Cheng, Gaohong Lv, Xiaoxing Zeng, Jian‐Bin Xu, Linlin Ren, Yagang Yao, Xiaoliang Zeng, Rong Sun

Small· Volume 22· Issue 15
Publisher page

Abstract

ABSTRACT Yield‐stress fluid can reversibly transform between the rigidity of a solid and the fluidity of a liquid, providing mechanical adaptability for its reprocessing and long‐term stability. For thermal management applications, however, this adaptability must be coupled with high thermal conductivity—an objective hindered by the conventional trade‐off between viscosity, and yield stress. Here, we propose a hierarchical filler architecture strategy by incorporating aluminum nitride particles of multiple sizes into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix to construct a multi‐level dynamic network. Small particles fill the interstices between larger ones, creating dense, percolated thermal pathways while enabling reversible network breakdown and reconstruction under shear. This design achieves an unprecedented combination of low viscosity (731.3 Pa s at 10 s −1 ), tunable yield stress (from 37.3 to 802.3 Pa), and high thermal conductivity (12.0 W m −1 K −1 ) in a yield‐stress composite fluid. Comprehensive rheological characterization reveals excellent thixotropic recovery and mechanical robustness, while physics‐informed neural network (PINN) modeling. When yielding stress fluid is used as a thermal interface material, the fluidity of liquid‐like form can achieve efficient distribution, and the rigidity of solid‐like form can achieve long‐term reliability. These findings provide a new approach for designing advanced yield‐stress fluids with controllable rheological properties and excellent thermal performance for high‐performance thermal management applications.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Thermal properties of materials · Polymer Foaming and Composites · Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

State Key Laboratory of Materials for Integrated Circuits Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Electronic Materials Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen China

Nano Science and Technology Institute University of Science and Technology of China Suzhou China

Shenzhen Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Centre of Guangdong Province Shenzhen China

Department of Electronics Engineering The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong China

National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures Nanjing University Nanjing China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province · Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

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