Synergistic Effects of Carbon Fillers in Thermally Conductive Liquid Crystal Polymer Based Resins

Abstract

Thermally conductive resins are needed for fuel cell bipolar plates. Varying amounts of three different carbons (carbon black, synthetic graphite particles, and carbon fiber) were added to Vectra A950RX Liquid Crystal Polymer. The resulting single filler composites were tested for thermal conductivity. In addition, the effects of single fillers and combinations of two different carbon fillers were studied via a factorial design. Synthetic graphite caused the largest statistically significant increase in composite through plane and in plane thermal conductivity. Composites containing synthetic graphite/carbon black and synthetic graphite/carbon fiber caused a statistically significant increase in through plane and in plane thermal conductivity.