Al(2)O(3) Dispersion-Induced Micropapillae in an Epoxy Composite Coating and Implications in Thermal Conductivity

[Image: see text] Al(2)O(3) particles with different sizes were dispersed into an epoxy precursor to improve the thermal conductivity (TC) of the epoxy coating. Al(2)O(3) particles tend to aggregate in epoxy, and the aggregation becomes more apparent (formation of micropapillae when the particle size is larger than 1 μm) with the increase of particle size. The calculated fast aggregation rates of various-size Al(2)O(3) particles in epoxy showed that the fast aggregation rate increased to a maximum rate of 6.37 × 10(–20) m(3)·s(–1) at a particle size of 200 nm and then decreased to a plateau value with the increase of particle size. The high fast aggregation rate caused the aggregation and the formation of nano- and micropapillae, causing the heterogeneous distribution of Al(2)O(3) particles. These micropapillae were separated by epoxy, which made formation of continuous pathways fail, causing the reduction of TC and heterogeneous heat distribution. The highest thermal conductivity of 2.52 W/m·K and uniform heat distribution were observed at the optimum filler size of 30 nm. The research findings provide the knowledge of optimizing particle size on constructing a thermally conductive polymer composite.