Effect of initial density on thermal conductivity of new micro-pipeline heat conduction C/SiC composites

C/SiC composites prepared by chemical vapor infiltration technique (CVI) have been regarded as thermal structural materials widely. However, these composites still suffer from poor functional properties like low thermal conductivity, especially in thickness direction of the composites, limiting their large-scale applications. Herein, mesophase pitch based carbon fiber (MPCF) and continuous wave laser machining were utilized to construct highly effective heat conductive micro-pipelines within CVI C/SiC composite. The effect of initial density on the final density and thermal conductivity of the as-obtained MPCF-C/SiC composites were investigated. The results revealed that higher initial density would directly enhance the thermal conductivity and reduce the negative impact of the bottle-neck effect. At temperatures between 100°C and 500°C, MPCF-C/SiC composites preserved more than threefold of the thermal conductivity (340%) when compared to reference C/SiC composites. This work provides a highly effective route for enhancing the thermal conductivity of C/SiC, which would broaden their future applications.