The effects of temperature and alignment state of nanofillers on the thermal conductivity of both metal and nonmetal based graphene nanocomposites

Abstract Temperature and the alignment state of nanofillers are two important factors that can greatly affect the thermal conductivity of graphene nanocomposites, but the simultaneous influence of these two issues have never been considered in any theoretical treatment. In this work we incorporate the contributions of electron-phonon coupling and phonon-phonon interaction into the diffuse mismatch model to establish the temperature dependence of filler-matrix interfacial thermal resistance and filler-filler contact resistance, both crucial for thermal conduction in graphene nanocomposites. The electron and phonon transport mechanisms, suitable for metal and nonmetal matrices respectively, are both taken into account. Then through an effective-medium approximation based on Maxwell's far-field matching, the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity of both metal and nonmetal-based graphene nanocomposites is derived. By further introducing a confinement angle with respect to the main alignment direction wherein the graphene nanofillers are supposed to be dispersed, the influence of the alignment state of graphene nanofillers is also investigated. We highlight this newly developed theory with direct comparisons to several sets of experimental data, and demonstrate the significant effects of temperature level and alignment state in thermal conductivity of graphene metal and nonmetal nanocomposites.