High thermal conductivity in soft elastomers with elongated liquid metal inclusions

作者：Michael D. Bartlett, Navid Kazem, Matthew J. Powell‐Palm, Xiaonan Huang, W. Sun, Jonathan A. Malen, Carmel Majidi · 发表于：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1073/pnas.1616377114 · 被引用次数：681 · 研究领域：Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials、Dielectric materials and actuators、Thermal properties of materials

Significance Efficient thermal transport is critical for applications ranging from electronics and energy to advanced manufacturing and transportation; it is essential in emerging domains like wearable computing and soft robotics, which require thermally conductive materials that are also soft and stretchable. However, heat transport within soft materials is limited by the dynamics of phonon transport, which results in a trade-off between thermal conductivity and compliance. We overcome this by engineering an elastomer composite embedded with elongated inclusions of liquid metal (LM) that function as thermally conductive pathways. These composites exhibit an extraordinary combination of low stiffness (<100 kPa), high strain limit (>600%), and metal-like thermal conductivity (up to 9.8 W⋅m −1 ⋅K −1 ) that far exceeds any other soft materials.