Exploring the Impact of Visual Heat Conduction Paths on Thermal Conductivity of Polymer Composites and the Practical Applications

The theory of heat conduction paths has been widely recognized and widely studied in the research about the thermal conductivity of thermal conductive polymer composites at present. Encapsulating polymer pellets with thermally conductive fillers and processing them into thermally conductive polymer composites is a simple and effective method for constructing heat conduction paths. It is meaningful to investigate the related heat conduction mechanism of this method. Otherwise, this approach can significantly preserve the performance of the polymer substrate, making it highly valuable for practical material applications. In this work, polyethylene-octene elastomer (POE) pellets were encapsulated with thermal conductive fillers by physical absorption. Subsequently, the composite films containing heat conduction paths were fabricated using the encapsulated POE pellets through a heating press. Alumina (Al₂O₃), boron nitride (BN), and alumina/boron nitride hybrid (Al₂O₃/BN) fillers were used to prepare Al₂O₃@POE, BN@POE, and BN/Al₂O₃@POE composite films to investigate the influence of filler shapes on heat conduction path construction. The influence of the constitute and density of heat conduction paths on the thermal conductivity of composite films was analyzed by infrared thermal imaging, finite element analysis, and thermal resistance theory in detail. Owing to the reserved good adhesion and flexibility of the POE substrate, the composite films could be directly used as thermal interface materials for chip cooling, which presented a good heat dissipation effect. Furthermore, a series of integrated composite materials were prepared by the combination of encapsulated pellets with various functional films (copper foil, aluminum foil, and graphite sheet) through a one-pot heating press, exhibiting a good electromagnetic shielding effect. The performance of the composites and the corresponding preparation method demonstrate the strong significance of this research for practical applications.