https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01660-6
Regular Article
Enhancing thermal conductivity of epoxy-based composites at low temperatures by Si3N4 binary fillers
1
Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Cryogenic Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190, Beijing, China
2
School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 101408, Beijing, China
a
miaozhicong@mail.ipc.ac.cn
b
huangrongjin@mail.ipc.ac.cn
Received:
27
August
2024
Accepted:
25
April
2025
Published online:
23
May
2025
The packaging structure with efficient heat conduction and dissipation is the key to ensuring rapid cooling and heat dissipation for superconducting magnets. However, as the most common encapsulated adhesive, epoxy resin has an extremely low thermal conductivity at low temperatures (< 0.1 W/(m·K) at 77 K), which can no longer meet the demands of future superconducting technology. In this work, a high-thermal-conductivity dielectric epoxy composite was obtained by using binary fillers consisting of α- and β-silicon nitride (Si3N4) as a reinforcement. Compared to the unitary filler system, the binary filler system can generate a more efficient thermal conduction pathway inside the composites. The results demonstrated that at a binary filler content of 60 wt%, the Si3N4-2/EP composite (α-Si3N4: β-Si3N4 = 2: 8) exhibited a 687.8% increase in thermal conductivity at room temperature (RT) and a 3266% increase at low temperature (77 K) compared to neat epoxy. Over the temperature range of 77–293 K, the Si3N4-2/EP composite exhibited an average coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as low as 14.1 × 10–6·K−1, which was reduced by 63%. This work provides a promising strategy for obtaining high thermal conductivity encapsulation materials for superconducting magnets.
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Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
