Fabrication of graphene/epoxy resin composites with much enhanced thermal conductivity via ball milling technique

Ball milling is selected to prepare composites of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and epoxy. Much enhanced thermal conductivity was recorded with higher GNP loading, which varied between 5 and 25 wt %. A maximum thermal conductivity of 2.67 W/m·K was found. The prepared composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman. It was found that KNG180, a commercially available kind of natural graphite, with a thickness of 30 ∼ 80 nm were mainly exfoliated into GNPs (<10 layers) with high quality, which were in turn uniformly dispersed in the composites. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131 , 40565.