Theoretical analysis of interfacial design and thermal conductivity in graphite flakes/Al composites with various interfacial coatings

Abstract Graphite flakes/Al composites are promising thermal management materials due to high thermal conductivity (TC) in basal plane orientation, matched coefficient of thermal expansion, and good machinability. In this article, the acoustic mismatch model and the effective medium approach are applied to predict the influence of different interfacial coatings on the interfacial thermal conductance (ITC) and the TC of graphite flakes/Al composites, respectively. With the increase in the thickness of interfacial coatings, the ITC and the TC of graphite flakes/Al composites decrease. For the composites with Ni, Cr/Cr7C3/Cr3C2, Si/SiC, Ti/TiC, WC, and Mo/Mo2C coatings, the ITC is sensitive to coating thickness. In order to obtain ideal TC of graphite flakes/Al composites, the thickness of the coatings should be controlled below 1 μm. It is reasonable that the TC of the graphite flakes/Al composites increases as the volume fraction of graphite flakes increases. The TC of the graphite flakes/Al composites increases with the ITC and changes slowly when the ITC increases to a certain extent. Si/SiC and WC coatings are proposed to be the most promising candidates to improve the thermal performance of graphite flakes/Al composites.