Nickel nanoparticle decorated silicon carbide as a thermal filler in thermal conductive aramid nanofiber-based composite films for heat dissipation applications

Aramid nanofibers (ANFs) have shown potential applications in the fields of nanocomposite reinforcement, battery separators, thermal insulation and flexible electronics. However, the inherent low thermal conductivity limits the application of ANFs, currently, to ensure long lifetime in electronics. In this work, new nickel (Ni) nanoparticles were employed to decorate the silicon carbide (SiC) filler by a rapid and non-polluting method, in which nickel acetate tetrahydrate (Ni(CH(3)COO)(2)·4H(2)O) and SiC were mixed and heated under an inert atmosphere. The composites as thermal fillers were applied to prepare an aramid nanofiber (ANF)-based composite film. Our results showed that the decoration of SiC by an appropriate amount of Ni nanoparticles played an important role in improving the thermal conductivity, hydrophobicity, thermal stability, and puncture resistance of the ANF composite film. After adjusting the balling time at 10 h, the optimized content of 10 mol% Ni nanoparticles improved the thermal conductivity to 0.502 W m(−1) K(−1), 298.4% higher than that of the original ANF film. Moreover, increasing the content of thermal fillers to 30 wt% realized a high thermal conductivity of 0.937 W m(−1) K(−1), which is 643.7% higher than that of the pristine ANF film. Moreover, the compatibility between thermal fillers and ANFs and thermal stability were improved for the ANF-composite films. The effective heat transfer function of our composite films was further confirmed using a LED lamp and thermoelectric device. In addition, the obtained composite films show certain mechanical properties and better hydrophobicity; these results exhibit their great potential applications in electronic devices.