my country’s research on metal thermal interface materials has made new progress. Liquid metal thermal interface materials are expected to become the mainstream of the market.

Thermal interface material (TIM) refers to a filler that has heat transfer effect and can be used between two materials. According to different raw materials, it can be divided into metal thermal interface materials, polymer thermal interface materials, new thermal interface materials, etc. Metal thermal interface materials refer to thermal interface materials made of metal or alloys as base materials. They have the advantages of good plasticity, corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, and high temperature resistance. They are widely used in many fields such as automobile manufacturing, electronic equipment, and data centers.

There are a wide variety of metal thermal interface materials, with liquid metal, low melting point solder and metal nanoparticles as their representative products. The thermal conductivity of liquid metal is extremely high. Taking gallium-based liquid metal as an example, its thermal conductivity reaches more than 20W/(m·k) and can be used to manufacture high-precision electronic components. However, liquid metals generally have shortcomings such as poor fluidity, large surface tension, and poor adhesion properties, and have not yet been widely used. At present, Chinese enterprises and related scientific research institutions are continuously increasing their investment in research and development of liquid metal thermal interface materials, which are expected to become mainstream products in the metal thermal interface material market in the future.

In July 2022, the research team of Wu Kai from the School of Polymer Science and Engineering of Sichuan University successfully developed a new type of liquid metal thermal interface gel material using mechanochemical technology. The material has adjustable rheology and strong interface thermal management capabilities. Advantage. In the future, with in-depth research and technological progress, my country’s metal thermal interface material industry will gradually develop in the direction of high performance.

According to the “2023-2028 China Metal Thermal Interface Materials Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report released by the Industrial Research Center , automobile manufacturing, electronic equipment, data centers and other fields are the main demand ends for metal thermal interface materials. In the field of automobile manufacturing, metal thermal interface materials can be used in automobile thermal management systems; in the field of electronic equipment, metal thermal interface materials can be used in computers, mobile phones and other equipment; in the field of data centers, metal thermal interface materials can be used in servers and switches heat dissipation material. As the scope of applications continues to expand, the market demand for metal thermal interface materials in my country will become increasingly strong.

Global metal thermal interface material manufacturers include American Indium Corporation, American Beggs Company, American 3M Company, etc., among which Indium Corporation is the world’s leading company. In terms of the local market, my country’s metal thermal interface material industry is still in its infancy. It is mainly based on laboratory research and development, and foreign-funded enterprises occupy a large share of the Chinese market.

Industry analysts said that metal thermal interface materials, as a segmented product of thermal interface materials, have broad application prospects. At present, due to factors such as high technical barriers, my country’s metal thermal interface material industry is still in the laboratory research and development stage, and its demand is highly dependent on imports. In the future, with in-depth research and technological advancement, the commercialization process of metal thermal interface materials in my country is expected to accelerate, and the market share of domestic products is expected to increase.