Influence of electrolessly silver-plated multi-walled carbon nanotubes on thermal conductivity of epoxy matrix nanocomposites

In this work, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were electrolessly Ag-plated in order to investigate the effect of plating time on the thermal conductivity of Ag-plated MWCNTs-reinforced epoxy matrix composites. MWCNT surfaces were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The thermal conductivity of Ag-plated MWCNT-reinforced epoxy nanocomposites was measured using the thermal equilibrium method with ASTM D5470. From the results, it was found that the thermal conductivity of the composites enhanced with increasing plating time. In particular the Ag-10/EP sample showed more than 150% enhancement of the thermal conductivity compared to the as-received CNTs/EP sample. These results were attributed to the high contents of Ag particles and the increase of the interfacial adhesion between the Ag-CNTs and EP matrix in the composites.