Dependence of the thermal conductivity of two-dimensional graphite nanoplatelet-based composites on the nanoparticle size distribution.

We report the thermal conductivities of graphite nanoplatelet-epoxy composites prepared by exfoliation of natural graphite flakes of varying lateral sizes. We found that utilization of natural graphite flakes of the optimum lateral dimensions (∼200-400 µm) as a starting material for exfoliation significantly enhanced the thermal conductivity of the composite. In order to understand this enhancement we developed a procedure for evaluation of the particle size distribution of graphite nanoplatelets and correlated the measured distributions with the resulting thermal conductivities. In order to expand the scope of our study we applied our statistical and thermal analysis to commercially available graphite nanoplatelet materials.