A study on thermal conductivity of electroless Ni–B plated multi-walled carbon nanotubes-reinforced composites

In this work, the effects of electroless Ni–B plating on thermal conductivity and fracture toughness of Ni–B multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)/epoxy matrix composites were examined. From the results, it was found that the thermal conductivity increases with increasing contents of electroless Ni–B MWCNTs. The critical stress intensity factor (KIC) also increased with increasing contents of electroless Ni–B MWCNTs. However, it rather decreased at over 10 phr. It is considered that this is because non-uniform distribution and partial entanglement occurred in case the contents of electroless Ni–B MWCNTs were high.