The development of polymer-based composites with a high thermal conductivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance is crucial to the application of polymer-based composites in electronic equipment. Herein, a novel strategy combining ice-templated assembly and stress-induced orientation was proposed to prepare polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/alumina/carbon fiber (CF) composites. CF in the composites exhibited a highly oriented structure in the horizontal direction. Alumina was connected to the CF, promoting the formation of thermal conductive pathways in both the horizontal and vertical directions. As the CF content was 27.5 vol% and the alumina content was 14.0 vol%, the PDMS/alumina/CF composite had high thermal conductivities in the horizontal and vertical directions, which were 8.44 and 2.34 W/(m·K), respectively. The thermal conductivity in the horizontal direction was 40.2 times higher than that of PDMS and 5.0 times higher than that of the composite with a randomly distributed filler. The significant enhancement of the thermal conductivity was attributed to the oriented structure of the CF and the bridging effect of alumina. The PDMS/alumina/CF composite exhibited an excellent EMI shielding effectiveness of 40.8 dB which was 2.4 times higher than that of the composite with a randomly distributed filler. The PDMS/alumina/CF composite also exhibited a low reflectivity of the electromagnetic waves. This work could provide a guide for the research of polymer-based composites with a high thermal conductivity and an EMI shielding performance.
Keywords: alumina; carbon fiber; electromagnetic interference shielding; polydimethylsiloxane; thermal conductivity.