thermal conductivity enhancement

The effect of simultaneous alignment of polyethylene (PE) lamellae and graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) on thermal conductivity (k) of PE-GnP composites is investigated. Measurements reveal a large increase of 1100% in k of the aligned PE-GnP composite using 10 weight% GnPs relative to unoriented pure PE. Rate of increase of k with applied strain for the pure PE-GnP composite with 10 wt% GnP is found to be almost a factor of two higher than the pure PE sample, pointing to the beneficial effect of GnP alignment on k enhancement.