Morphology and thermal conductivity of polyacrylate composites containing aluminum/multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Polyacrylate composites with various fillers such as multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT), aluminum flake (Al-flake), aluminum powders and Al–CNT were prepared by a ball milling. The thermal decomposition temperature increased by as much as 64 °C for polyacrylate/Al-flake 70 wt% composite compared to polyacrylate. The thermal conductivity of polyacrylate/Al–CNT composites increased from 0.50 to 1.67 W/m K as the Al–CNT content increases from 50 to 80 wt%. The thermal conductivity of the composite sheet increases with the sheet thickness. At the given filler concentration (90 wt%), the composite filled with aluminum powder of 13 μm has a higher thermal conductivity than the one filled 3 μm powder, and the composite filled with mixture of two powders showed a synergistic effect on the thermal conductivity. The morphology indicates that the dispersion of CNT in the polyacrylate/Al-flake + CNT composite is not perfect, and agglomeration of CNTs was observed.