High thermal conductivity graphite nanoplatelet/UHMWPE nanocomposites

High thermal conductivity graphite nanoplatelet/ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (GNPs/UHMWPE) nanocomposites are fabricated via mechanical ball milling followed by a hot-pressing method. The GNPs are located at the interface of the UHMWPE matrix. The thermal conductivity coefficient of the GNPs/UHMWPE nanocomposite is greatly improved to 4.624 W m^-1 K^-1 with 21.4 vol% GNPs, 9 times higher than that of the original UHMWPE matrix. The significantly high improvement of the thermal conductivity is ascribed to the formation of multidimensional thermally conductive GNPs-GNPs networks, and the GNPs have a strong ability to form continuous thermally conductive networks. The method of cooling-pressing on the machine is more beneficial for the improvement of the thermal conductivity, by increasing the crystallinity of the UHMWPE matrix. Furthermore, the thermal stabilities of the GNPs/UHMWPE nanocomposites are increased with increasing addition of GNPs.