The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Gallium-based liquid metals are promising for thermal management due to their metallic thermal conductivity and ability to make intimate contacts to surfaces; however, they are limited by certain factors such as leakage, wettability, embrittlement, and alloying, which can deteriorate their performance. Herein, we introduce a liquid metal-based thermal grease achieved through phase-inverted oil-in-liquid metal/silicon carbide emulsion process as a potential material for efficient thermal management of electronic chips. The thermal grease consisting of oxidized liquid metal foam with interstitial voids fills with silicone oil containing liquid metal particles and silicon carbide particles exhibits high thermal conductivity of 9.27 W/(m⋅K). In addition, thin silicone oil layer formed spontaneously on the surface of the thermal grease acts as barrier preventing liquid metal–metal surface interactions, thereby showing no signs of embrittlement on aluminum surface for four weeks.