Effects of surface metal layer on the thermal contact resistance of carbon nanotube arrays

We present a type of thermal interface material by incorporating carbon nanotube arrays into polydimethylsiloxane. Particularly, we evaporated a 1-μm-thick aluminum layer on the top of the raw carbon nanotube array, which served as a heat current collector to decrease the thermal contact resistance. The thermal conductivity and thermal contact resistance of the materials were measured by the steady-state method. Comparing to the material without the heat current collector, the thermal contact resistance was remarkably reduced by about 50%.