• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.431-438
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• 2022

Efficient heat dissipation in current electronics is crucial to ensure the best performance and lifespan of the devices along with the users' safety. Materials with high thermal conductivity are often used to dissipate the generated heat from the electronics to the surroundings. For this purpose, polymer composites have been attracted much attention as they possess advantages rooted from both polymer matrix and thermally conductive filler. In order to meet the thermal conductivity required by relevant industries, composites with high filler loadings (i.e., >60 vol%) have been fabricated. At such high filler loadings, however, composites lose benefits originated from the polymer matrix. To achieve high thermal conductivity at a relatively low filler loading, therefore, constructing the heat conduction pathway by controlling filler structure within the composites may represent a judicious strategy. To this end, this review introduces several recent approaches to manufacturing heat dissipating materials with high thermal conductivity by manipulating thermally conductive filler structures in polymer composites.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.47-51
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• 2022

In order to efficiently control the heat generation of electronic devices, many research has been conducted on thermally conductive composite materials. In this study, milled carbon fiber was dispersed in four solvent to investigate the relationship of carbon fiber alignment according to dispersion by solvents, and carbon fiberreinforced composite material(CFRP) was manufactured using vacuum filtration. To evaluate the arrangement of CFRP the arrangement of the prepared specimen was observed under an optical microscope, and thermal conductivity was measured by Laser Flash Analysis. The Through-plane thermal conductivity of CFRP using NMP and Ethanol was 10.79 W/mK and 10.57 W/mK respectively, which were improved by 218% and 209% compared to the In-plane thermal conductivity. The high viscosity of the solvent greatly affects the shear of the fluid, and it seemed to determine the alignment of the filler.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.270-276
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• 2015

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based nanocomposites are fabricated by incorporation of boron nitride (BN) nanosheets with anisotropic orientation for a potential high thermal conducting ferroelectric materials. The PVDF is dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF) and homogeneously mixed with exfoliated BN nanosheets, which is then cast into a polyimide film under application of high magnetic fields (0.45~10 T), where the direction of the filler alignment was controlled. The BN nanosheets are exfoliated by a mixed way of solvothermal method and ultrasonication prior to incorporation into the PVDF-based polymer suspension. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and thermal diffusivity are measured for the characterization of the polymer nanocomposites. Analysis shows that BN nanosheets are exfoliated into the fewer layers, whose basal planes are oriented either perpendicular or parallel to the composite surfaces without necessitating the surface modification induced by high magnetic fields. Moreover, the nanocomposites show a dramatic thermal diffusivity enhancement of 1056% by BN nanosheets with perpendicular orientation in comparison with the pristine PVDF at 10 vol % of BN, which relies on the degree of filler orientation. The mechanism for the magnetic field-induced orientation of BN and enhancement of thermal property of PVDF-based composites by the BN assembly are elucidated.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2020

In this study, a polymer/graphene hybrid composite was prepared by a simple roll-method and a simple sensor was produced by a convenient surface engineering procedure. The sensor performance was examined and the effect of graphene content on the sensing behavior was monitored. A polymer (polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS) paste containing graphene powder was prepared by a three-roll apparatus and polymer/graphene hybrid composite was produced by a two-roll technique. The sensing medium, cyclodextrin (CD) was introduced by a convenient bio-conjugation method. The efficacy of surface modification was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy and the ohmic relation was observed on composite surfaces. An analyte (e.g., methyl paraben, MePRB) at a 10 nM concnetration could be detected. When the graphene loading was low, the sensor performance was relatively poor. This was attributed to the absence of graphene alignments, which were observed for the composites having a high graphene loading. This indicates that the sensor performance was influenced by physical alignments of the filler. This article can provide important information for future research on developing sensing devices.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2018

Forward osmosis (FO) desalination system has been highlighted to improve the energy efficiency and drive down the carbon footprint of current reverse osmosis (RO) desalination technology. To improve the trade-off between water flux and salt rejection of thin film composite (TFC) desalination membrane, thin film nanocomposite membranes (TFN), in which nanomaterials as a filler are embeded within a polymeric matrix, are being explored to tailor the separation performance and add new functionality to membranes for water purification applications. The objective of this article is to develop a graphene nanocomposite membrane with high performance of water selective permeability (high water flux, high salt rejection, and low reverse solute diffusion) as a next-generation FO desalination membrane. For advances in fabrication of graphene oxide (GO) membranes, layer-by-layer (LBL) technique was used to control the desirable structure, alignment, and chemical functionality that can lead to ultrahigh-permeability membranes due to highly selective transport of water molecules. In this study, the GO nanocomposite membrane fabricated by LBL dip coating method showed high water flux ($J_w/{\Delta}{\pi}=2.51LMH/bar$), water selectivity ($J_w/J_s=8.3L/g$), and salt rejection (99.5%) as well as high stability in aqueous solution and under FO operation condition.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.95-99
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• 2018

High thermal conductivity films with electrically insulating properties have a great potential for the effective heat transfer as substrate and thermal interface materials in high density and high power electronic packages. There have been lots of studies to achieve high thermal conductivity composites using high thermal conductivity fillers such alumina, aluminum nitride, boron nitride, CNT and graphene, recently. Among them, hexagonal-boron nitride (h-BN) nano-sheet is a promising candidate for high thermal conductivity with electrically insulating filler material. This work presents an enhanced heat transfer properties of ceramic/polymer composite films using h-BN nano-sheets and PVA polymer resins. The h-BN nano-sheets were prepared by a mechanical exfoliation of h-BN flakes using organic media and subsequent ultrasonic treatment. High thermal conductivities over $2.8W/m{\cdot}K$ for transverse and $10W/m{\cdot}K$ for in-plane direction of the cast films were achieved for casted h-BN/PVA composite films. Further improvement of thermal conductivity up to $13.5W/m{\cdot}K$ at in-plane mode was achieved by applying uniaxial compression at the temperature above glass transition of PVA to enhance the alignment of the h-BN nano-sheets.