Thermal Conductivity of Aluminosilicate- and Aluminum Oxide-Filled Thermosets for Injection Molding: Effect of Filler Content, Filler Size and Filler Geometry

Yang Zhao; Zhanyu Zhai; Dietmar Drummer

doi:10.3390/polym10040457

Thermal Conductivity of Aluminosilicate- and Aluminum Oxide-Filled Thermosets for Injection Molding: Effect of Filler Content, Filler Size and Filler Geometry

Polymers (Basel). 2018 Apr 20;10(4):457. doi: 10.3390/polym10040457.

Authors

Yang Zhao¹, Zhanyu Zhai², Dietmar Drummer³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Polymer Technology, University Erlangen-Nurenberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany. zhaoy@lkt.uni-erlangen.de.
² Institute of Polymer Technology, University Erlangen-Nurenberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany. zhai@lkt.uni-erlangen.de.
³ Institute of Polymer Technology, University Erlangen-Nurenberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany. drummer@lkt.uni-erlangen.de.

Abstract

In this study, epoxy molding compounds (EMCs) with aluminosilicate (AlS) and aluminum oxide (AlO) were fabricated as fillers by a twin-screw-extruder (TSE) and shaped to plate samples using injection molding. AlS and AlO, electrical insulating mineral materials, were used as fillers to improve the thermal conductivity (λ_c) of composites. Composites with different filler particle sizes, filler contents and filler geometry were fabricated and the influence of these variables on the λ_c was studied. The λ_c of composites was measured with the hot-disk method. The distribution of fillers in composites was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Using the Lewis-Nielsen equation, experimental values of λ_c were compared with those predicted. The predicted results fit the experimental values well. The result showed that λ_c increases significantly when the filler content of composites is approximately over 50 vol %.

Keywords: EMC; Lewis-Nielsen’s equation; aluminosilicate; aluminum oxide; injection molding; irregular filler; spheres filler; thermal conductive polymer composite.