Diamond Insulating Thermal Conductive Adhesives (DITCA) project supported by the Office of Chief Scientist (OCS) is aimed at the development of new nanodiamond polymer compounds with high insulation and heat dissipation ability.

Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity ever measured 2300 W/mK and very high electrical resistivity of 10¹³ Ω*cm. Nanodiamonds been uniformly introduced within polymer matrix significantly enhance thermal conductivity of the basic material, not affecting or even improving electrical resistivity.

To provide disaggregation of nanodiamonds, their homogeneous distribution in polymer matrix and increase in their performance, modification of their surface is required for each basic material. RAY has developed special techniques for the functionalization of nanodiamonds for their desired interaction with polymers.
Nanodiamond additives for considerable increase in thermal conductivity can be provided in four forms:

• – functionalized powder;
• – slurry (dispersions in various solvents) for mixing with a polymer resin followed by the solvent evaporation;
• – hardener with highly dispersed nanodiamonds in high concentration for mixing with polymer resin and rapid polymerization;
• – masterbatch (a polymer resin with uniformly distributed nanodiamonds in high concentration) for simple mixing with a polymer resin.

Currently RAY is looking for industrial partners for commercialization of the developed additives. Samples with functionalized powder and slurries in water, acetone, cyclohexane and other solvents are available for evaluation.