A study on thermal conductivity and fracture toughness of alumina nanofibers and powders-filled epoxy matrix composites

In this work, the effect of alumina nanofibers on thermal conductivity and fracture toughness of alumina nanofibers and powder filled epoxy (EP) composites were investigated with varying alumina nanofiber content from 20 to 100 phr. Thermal conductivity was tested using a laser flash analysis (LFA). The fracture toughness of the composites were studied through the critical stress intensity factor (K_1c) measurement. The mophologies were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). From the results, it was found that the thermal conductivity was enhanced with increasing alumina nanofiber content, which played a key factor to determine the thermal conductivity. The K_1c value was increased with increasing alumina nanofiber content, whereas the value decreased above 40 phr alumina nanofiber content. This was probably considered that the alumina nanofiber entangled each other in EP due to an excess of alumina nanofibers.