Thermal Insulation Foam of Polystyrene/Expanded Graphite Composite with Reduced Radiation and Conduction

Abstract

Expanded graphite (EG) with high infrared (IR) absorption is incorporated at low concentrations (≤2 wt%) into polystyrene (PS) foams to reduce radiative thermal conductivity and solid thermal conductivity, which account for 20~40% and 10~30% of total thermal conductivity, respectively. After systematically and quantitatively investigating thermal insulation behavior in PS/EG foams, it was found that the inclusion of 1 wt% EG in 25-fold expanded PS/EG foam blocks over 90% of the radiative thermal conductivity, with only a marginal increase in heat conduction. A great reduction in total thermal conductivity from 36.5 to 30.2 mW·m−1·K−1 was then achieved. By further optimization using a co-blowing agent in the supercritical CO2 foaming process, superthermal insulating PS/EG foam with a total thermal conductivity of 19.6 mW·m−1·K−1 was achieved for the first time. This significant result implies that the composite material design together with the foaming process design is capable of obtaining a superthermal insulating composite foam by using the following strategy: using additives with high IR absorption efficiency, a foam with a large expansion ratio, and a co-blowing agent with low gas conductivity.