Measurement of effective thermal conductivity of composite powders of 2D materials and metals for additive manufacturing

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), a promising additive manufacturing technique for composites of 2D materials and metals, requires knowledge of thermophysical properties, such as the thermal conductivity of powder, for process optimization. In this study, we measured the effective thermal conductivity of the most representative Cu-graphene composite powder in the field of heat transfer applications. To measure thermal conductivity, we propose a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method to measure the thermal resistances of a powder bed under steady-state heat flow conditions. We observe that the thermal conductivity of a composite powder is 1,000 times lower than that of the bulk metal without 2D material addition; e.g., exhibiting ~ 0.30 W/mK in Cu-1wt.% graphene powder. Furthermore, we discuss powder size and morphology impact on thermal conductivity influencing the number of contact points and thermal contact resistance. Our findings contribute to understanding the thermal conductivity of composite powders in a powder bed and aid in optimizing LPBF processes.