title: High thermal conductivity in amorphous polymer blends by engineered interchain interactions.
abstract: Thermal conductivity is an important property for polymers, as it often affects product reliability (for example, electronics packaging), functionality (for example, thermal interface materials) and/or manufacturing cost. However, polymer thermal conductivities primarily fall within a relatively narrow range (0.1-0.5 W m(-1) K(-1)) and are largely unexplored. Here, we show that a blend of two polymers with high miscibility and appropriately chosen linker structure can yield a dense and homogeneously distributed thermal network. A sharp increase in cross-plane thermal conductivity is observed under these conditions, reaching over 1.5 W m(-1) K(-1) in typical spin-cast polymer blend films of nanoscale thickness, which is approximately an order of magnitude larger than that of other amorphous polymers.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2125, USA [2] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA.
authors.forename: Gun-Ho
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA.
authors.forename: Dongwook
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA.
authors.forename: Apoorv
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shanker
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2125, USA.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA.
authors.forename: Min Sang
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gidley
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA [2] Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA [3] Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1055, USA [4] Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA.
authors.forename: Jinsang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2125, USA [2] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2121, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Pipe