Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Taphouse, John H.
• Smith, O'Neil L.
• Marder, Seth R.
• Cola, Baratunde A.

Titel

A Pyrenylpropyl Phosphonic Acid Surface Modifier for Mitigating the Thermal Resistance of Carbon Nanotube Contacts

Ist Teil von

• Advanced functional materials, 2014-01, Vol.24 (4), p.465-471

Ort / Verlag

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Efforts to utilize the high intrinsic thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for thermal transport applications, namely for thermal interface materials (TIMs), have been encumbered by the presence of high thermal contact resistances between the CNTs and connecting materials. Here, a pyrenylpropyl‐phosphonic acid surface modifier is synthesized and applied in a straight forward and repeatable approach to reduce the thermal contact resistance between CNTs and metal oxide surfaces. When used to bond nominally vertically aligned multi‐walled CNT forests to Cu oxide surfaces, the modifier facilitates a roughly 9‐fold reduction in the thermal contact resistance over dry contact, enabling CNT‐based TIMs with thermal resistances of 4.6 ± 0.5 mm2 K W−1, comparable to conventional metallic solders. Additional experimental characterization of the modifier suggests that it may be used to reduce the electrical resistance of CNT‐metal oxide contacts by similar orders of magnitude. A pyrenylpropyl phosphonic acid surface modifier is developed for coupling carbon nanotubes to metal oxide surfaces to reduce the thermal contact resistance. The modifier is demonstrated through experiment to reduce the thermal contact resistance between vertically aligned carbon nanotube forests and Cu oxide surfaces by roughly 9‐fold, enabling carbon nanotube‐based thermal interface materials with thermal resistances comparable to conventional metallic solders