Toward enhancing thermal conductivity of polymer-based thin films for microelectronics cooling

Thermal interface materials with high thermal conductivity can remove heat efficiently from electronic devices. Carbon nanotube/polymer composite is a good candidate for thermal interface materials. We calculated the thermal conductivity of vertically aligned carbon nanotube/polyethylene (CNT/PE) composite and compared it with vertically aligned CNT and PE based on equilibrium molecular dynamics. We found that the thermal conductivity of CNT/PE composite along the alignment direction can be as high as 470.1±45.1 W/(mK), which is about 40% of that of CNT and about 16 times larger than that of PE. This can be well explained by vibrational density of states. The ultrahigh thermal conductivity of aligned CNT/PE composite may open up exciting opportunities towards enhancing the cross-plane thermal conductivity of polymer-based thermal interface materials for efficient microelectronics cooling.