2024 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 101-109
Although flexible and thermally conductive composite materials are required for applications in flexible devices, there is generally a trade-off relationship between the thermal conductivity and the mechanical properties such as flexibility and toughness. It is also difficult to achieve composites combing these properties with high value. Here, this paper reviews tough-composites resolving this issue by utilizing cross-linking network composed of slide-ring polymers and plasma surface modification for filler dispersion. Uniform dispersion of fillers enabled the movable cross-linking points to enhance pulley effects which could result in relaxation of stress concentration around fillers to suppress embrittlement of composites. These approaches achieved tough composites, which combine flexibility and toughness. Moreover, filler alignment by electric fields in order to form thermally conductive pathway is also introduced, as a way to achieve tough-composites with a metal-class thermal conductivity and a rubber-class flexibility.
