[InfoMat] Superior through-plane thermal conductivity in carbon fibers/spherical graphene/epoxy laminated composites for low-altitude aircrafts.
作者：Shengyuan Gao, Hua Guo, Yongqiang Guo*, Hua Qiu, Wei Gong* and Junwei Gu*
關鍵字：epoxy resin, carbon fiber, spherical thermally reduced graphene, through-plane thermal conductivity
論文來源：期刊
發表時間：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區材料科學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.
隨著低空經濟加速崛起，無人機、eVTOL（電動垂直起降飛行器）等對碳纖維/環氧樹脂復合材料的需求持續攀升。但碳纖維/環氧樹脂復合材料面間導熱性能不足的瓶頸難題，已成為制約其電子設備系統性能與可靠性的關鍵因素。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）為導熱填料，提升中間相瀝青基碳纖維（MPCF）/環氧樹脂復合材料的面間導熱性能。當s-TRG和MPCF的質量分數分別為10 wt%和60 wt%時，MPCF/s-TRG/環氧樹脂復合材料的面間導熱系數（λ⊥）為2.73 W/(m·K)，較MPCF/環氧樹脂的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/環氧樹脂復合材料λ⊥（1.60 W/(m·K)）的1.71倍。利用蒙特卡洛算法揭示了MPCF/s-TRG/環氧樹脂復合材料面間高導熱的根本原因在于s-TRG各向同性的球形結構能夠在層間實現三維空間內的多點高效搭接，克服了片狀石墨烯在面間方向的搭接限制。本研究不僅為復合材料的面間導熱增強提供了一種高效的填料結構設計策略，更為高功率密度電子設備在下一代輕量化低空飛行器中的熱管理應用開辟了可行路徑。