Thermal property improvement of polytetrafluoroethylene nanocomposites with graphene nanoplatelets

Thermal properties including the crystallization behavior, thermal stability and thermal conductivity for a series of graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)-polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanocomposites were studied. The GNP-PTFE nanocomposites were fabricated via solvent-assisted blending followed by cold-pressing and sintering. The results indicated that the GNP-PTFE nanocomposites retained the good thermal stability of the PTFE matrix, and possessed better crystallization and much higher thermal conductivity than pure PTFE. The thermal conductivity of PTFE nanocomposites with a GNP mass fraction of 20% could reach 4.02 W (m K)(-1), which was increased by 1300% compared with pure PTFE. Additionally, a theoretical model was proposed to analyze the thermal conductivity of GNP-PTFE nanocomposites. It is demonstrated that adding GNPs into PTFE homogeneously can effectively improve the thermal properties of the nanocomposites.