Measurement of thermal contact resistance between individual carbon fibers using a laser-flash Raman mapping method

Thermal contact resistance (TCR) between individual carbon fibers (CFs) can dominate heat dissipation rates in CF-based composite materials. Here, we develop a totally non-contact “laser-flash Raman mapping” method to simultaneously measure the TCR at the CF-CF junction and their thermal conductivities. Laser power is used to heat the sample and the laser absorptivity is experimentally determined by a transient laser-flash Raman technique. The laser heating positions are changed along two connected CFs, and the change of temperature rise with varying positions is in-situ measured from the temperature dependent Raman band shifts. The high spatial resolution of the micro-Raman mapping allows direct observation of the abrupt jump of thermal resistance at the CF-CF junction, from which we extracted the TCR as well as the thermal conductivity. The laser absorptivity of the 11 μm-diameter CFs is measured to be 0.12 ± 0.03, the thermal conductivities of the individual CFs are around 200 W/mK, and the TCR of the CF-CF junction is (2.98 ± 0.92) × 105 K/W. This work provides indispensable knowledge for the design of CF-based composite for thermal management, and the novel non-contact measurement method can stimulate characterization and manipulation of contact/interface heat conduction between various micro- and nano-materials.