Study of the thermal conduction mechanism of nano-SiC/DGEBA/EMI-2,4 composites

This report covers the results of a study on identifying the thermal conduction mechanism of nano-sized SiC/diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A glycidol ether epoxy resin/2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole (nano-SiC/DGEBA/EMI-2,4) composites. The analysis using FTIR provided an in-depth understanding about how the pretreatment of micro/nano-sized SiC (micro/nano-SiC) particles affects the surface structure of the two different-sized particles, and thereby results in the difference in particles/resin interface structures, which determine different thermal conduction mechanisms. The surface modification approaches included: (1) silane treatment using γ-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (A1100) and (2) oxidation followed by silane treatment. The results showed that, it is the structure of cross-linked SiC particles/resin three-dimensional network, established by chemical bonding, dominates the thermal conduction mechanism of nano-SiC/DGEBA/EMI-2,4 composites, and leads to the nanocomposites with high thermal conductivity at low filler content. Meanwhile, thermal conduction chains, the prevailing thermal conduction mean in the micro-SiC/DGEBA/EMI-2,4 composites, are the secondary means to conduct thermal diffusion in the nanocomposites.