Simulative study on the performance of polymeric composites containing phase change capsules for chip heat dissipation

Polymeric composites containing phase change capsules (PCC) have both heat storage capacity and thermal reliability, thus having important applications. The simulative study facilitates systematic investigations on the effects of the mass fraction and phase change characteristic of the capsules as well as the thermal conductivity of the composites on the application performance of the phase change composites. Herein, simulative researches were conducted on the performance of the polymeric composites containing the paraffin@SiO₂ capsules for chip heat dissipation. Specifically, a physical model was built according to a widely-employed computer CPU cooling system, which was validated by the experimental results obtained from the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based composites containing the paraffin@SiO₂ nanocapsules. It is found that the mass fraction of paraffin@SiO₂ capsules has an obvious effect on the equilibrium temperature of the chip, while the melting point and enthalpy of the capsules affect the temperature rise rate of the chip. Subsequently, in order to make the PDMS-based composite containing the paraffin@SiO₂ capsules to meet the heat dissipation requirements of the chip at different working powers, predictions on enhancements in its thermal conductivity were performed. The relationship between the working power of the chip and the required thermal conductivity of PCC was thus acquired. This work sheds light on designing polymeric composites containing phase change capsules for chip heat dissipation. © 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd.