Enhanced interfacial thermal transport across graphene-polymer interfaces by grafting polymer chains

MC Wang and N Hu and LM Zhou and C Yan, CARBON, 85, 414-421 (2015).

DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2015.01.009

Thermal transport in graphene-polymer nanocomposite is complicated and has not been well understood. The interfacial thermal transport between graphene nanofiller and polymer matrix is expected to play a key role in controlling the overall thermal performance of graphene-polymer nanocomposite. In this work, we investigated the thermal transport across graphene-polymer interfaces functionalized with end-grafted polymer chains using molecular dynamics simulations. The effects of grafting density, chain length and initial morphology on the interfacial thermal transport were systematically investigated. It was found that end-grafted polymer chains could significantly enhance interfacial thermal transport and the underlying mechanism was considered to be the enhanced vibration coupling between graphene and polymer. In addition, a theoretical model based on effective medium theory was established to predict the thermal conductivity in graphene-polymer nanocomposites. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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