MWCNTs and their use in Al-MMCs for ultra-high thermal conductivity applications: A review

The limited number of studies that have focused on the thermal conductivity of AMCs reinforced with MWCNTs clearly demonstrates the undeveloped state of these materials to harness the potential high thermal properties of the MWCNTs. For this reason, a substantial volume of work is still needed to develop processing methods capable of overcoming the inherent challenges faced (i.e. introduction of the MWCNTs into the Al matrix, wettability of the nanotubes, dispersion, subsequent reaction products, alignment and structural damage) during Al/MWCNT processing. If these nanoparticles with outstanding thermal properties can be harnessed to produce ultra-high thermal conductivity (K=400Wm-1K-1) materials, they can be the solution to overcome the limitations of important thermal management applications such as HPLEDs.