Effect of esterification crosslinking on interfacial heat transfer between graphene and phase change material

L Cao and YJ Liu and D Zhang, COMPOSITE INTERFACES, 28, 1121-1135 (2021).

DOI: 10.1080/09276440.2020.1863179

Understanding interfacial heat transfer between graphene and phase change material (PCM) is important to realize the potential of graphene/PCM composite (G/PCM) in the field of thermal interface material (TIM). Here, molecular dynamics is used to explore the effect of chemical linkage via esterification reaction on the interfacial heat transfer between graphene and PCM matrix. The results show that the interface thermal resistance (ITR) is greatly reduced as the degree of esterification increases. By comparing the vibrational density of states spectrums of graphene and PCM matrix, the strong interfacial interaction of esterification crosslinking is proved to be effective in promoting interfacial heat transfer. For composite composed of carboxyl modified graphene and octadecanol, the ITR can be reduced by 95.7% after esterification reaction. Additionally, the thermal conductivity (TC) of G/PCM is predicted using effective medium theory. It is found that the TC of G/PCM can be improved when ITR decreases, but if the graphene is dispersed in the PCM matrix without forming a continuous network, the improvement effect is not very prominent. The present findings offer valuable guidance on the application of G/PCM for high-performance TIMs.

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