[InfoMat] Superior through-plane thermal conductivity in carbon fibers/spherical graphene/epoxy laminated composites for low-altitude aircrafts.
writer：Shengyuan Gao, Hua Guo, Yongqiang Guo*, Hua Qiu, Wei Gong* and Junwei Gu*
keywords：epoxy resin, carbon fiber, spherical thermally reduced graphene, through-plane thermal conductivity
source：期刊
Issue time：2026年
Shengyuan Gao, Hua Guo, Yongqiang Guo*, Hua Qiu, Wei Gong* and Junwei Gu*. Superior through-plane thermal conductivity in carbon fibers/spherical graphene/epoxy laminated composites for low-altitude aircrafts. InfoMat, 2026, e70139. DOI: 10.1002/inf2.70139. 2024IF=22.3.（1區(qū)材料科學(xué)Top期刊）
http://doi.org/10.1002/inf2.70139
Abstract
The rapid expansion of the low-altitude economy has driven growing demand for carbon fiber/epoxy composites in applications including unmanned aerial vehicles and electric vertical take-off and landing aircrafts. However, the characteristically low through-plane thermal conductivity (λ⊥) of these composites poses a critical thermal conduction limitation, which adversely affects the performance and reliability of onboard electronic systems. In this work, we present an architectural design to improve the λ⊥ of mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber (MPCF)/epoxy composites by incorporating precisely engineered spherical thermally reduced graphene (s-TRG) as a bridging filler. At loading of 10 wt% s-TRG and 60 wt% MPCF, the MPCF/s-TRG/epoxy composite achieves a λ⊥ of 2.73 W/(m·K), representing a 173.0% improvement over the MPCF/epoxy composite (1.00 W/(m·K)) and about 1.71 times the λ⊥ of its conventional TRG-filled analogue (1.60 W/(m·K)). Monte Carlo simulations reveal that the enhancement originates from the isotropic spherical architecture of s-TRG, which facilitates efficient multi-point bridging within the three-dimensional interlaminar space, thereby overcoming the limited through-plane contact characteristic of planar graphene sheets. This work not only provides an efficient filler structural design strategy for thermal enhancement but also suggests a feasible route toward managing heat in high power density electronics for next-generation lightweight low-altitude aircraft.
隨著低空經(jīng)濟加速崛起，無人機、eVTOL（電動垂直起降飛行器）等對碳纖維/環(huán)氧樹脂復(fù)合材料的需求持續(xù)攀升。但碳纖維/環(huán)氧樹脂復(fù)合材料面間導(dǎo)熱性能不足的瓶頸難題，已成為制約其電子設(shè)備系統(tǒng)性能與可靠性的關(guān)鍵因素。本文以“靜電噴霧-高溫煅燒”法制備的球形熱還原氧化石墨烯（s-TRG）為導(dǎo)熱填料，提升中間相瀝青基碳纖維（MPCF）/環(huán)氧樹脂復(fù)合材料的面間導(dǎo)熱性能。當(dāng)s-TRG和MPCF的質(zhì)量分數(shù)分別為10 wt%和60 wt%時，MPCF/s-TRG/環(huán)氧樹脂復(fù)合材料的面間導(dǎo)熱系數(shù)（λ⊥）為2.73 W/(m·K)，較MPCF/環(huán)氧樹脂的λ⊥（1.00 W/(m·K)）提高了173.0%，約為添加同等用量熱還原氧化石墨烯（TRG）的MPCF/TRG/環(huán)氧樹脂復(fù)合材料λ⊥（1.60 W/(m·K)）的1.71倍。利用蒙特卡洛算法揭示了MPCF/s-TRG/環(huán)氧樹脂復(fù)合材料面間高導(dǎo)熱的根本原因在于s-TRG各向同性的球形結(jié)構(gòu)能夠在層間實現(xiàn)三維空間內(nèi)的多點高效搭接，克服了片狀石墨烯在面間方向的搭接限制。本研究不僅為復(fù)合材料的面間導(dǎo)熱增強提供了一種高效的填料結(jié)構(gòu)設(shè)計策略，更為高功率密度電子設(shè)備在下一代輕量化低空飛行器中的熱管理應(yīng)用開辟了可行路徑。