Thermal conductivity and specific heat of an epoxy resin/epoxy resin composite material at low temperatures

Abstract

The thermal conductivity and the specific heat of pure and filled epoxy resins are measured in the temperature range between 2 and 80 K. In order to study the low-temperature thermal conductivity of the filled samples without any acoustic mismatch a filler completely identical with the matrix material is used. The characteristic plateau of the thermal conductivity of amorphous solids between 5 and 15 K is extented to elevated temperatures with growing filler content. A second plateau of the thermal conductivity between 30 and 50 K is observed. It is suggested that the second plateau arises from a mechanism which is due to the anisotropic bending forces in polymers and related materials.