Influence of functionalized graphene on the electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of solderable isotropic conductive adhesives

Graphene nanosheets have attracted considerable attention as ideal reinforcing filler materials for polymer composites due to their superior physical properties. In this paper, to investigate the influence of functionalized graphene on the electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of solderable isotropic conductive adhesives (SICAs) with low-melting-point alloy, three types of SICAs [without and with graphene oxide (GO) and amine-modified GO (GO-NH2)] were prepared. All SICA assemblies without and with different functionalized graphene sheets showed excellent electrical and mechanical properties due to the formation of uniform and stable metallurgical conduction paths. The epoxy composite with GO sheets showed superior thermal conductivity to the epoxy composite with GO-NH2 sheets. Our results demonstrated that graphene sheets within SICAs do not affect the electrical and mechanical properties of SICA joints, and that GO sheets are more suitable for enhancing the thermal conductivities of polymer composites than GO-NH2 sheets.