Fig. 1: Liquid-infused nanostructured composites (LINCs).

a Schematic illustration of LINCs, where an ultra-thin, mechanically compliant, and thermally conductive double-sided copper nanowire (CuNW) array scaffold is infused with a customized thermal-bridge liquid. CuNW arrays comply with the target surface like “nano-springs” and serve as efficient heat flow channels across the interface. Infused liquid effectively bridges the CuNW tips thermally to the target surface and, therefore, largely suppresses the contact resistance of LINCs. The multifunctional thermal-bridge liquid allows for pre-packaging provides reworkability when using non-adhesives, and enables thermal bonding of two substrates at room temperature akin to soldering but with extended applicability to non-solderable materials when using adhesives, therefore is highly customizable for a broad range of applications as a universal high-performance thermal interface material (TIM). b Top-view atomic force microscopic image of the CuNW scaffold. c Cross-sectional scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image of the CuNW scaffold, scale bar, 20 μm. Pictures of (d) CuNW scaffold, (e) Glycerol-LINC, (f) Liquid-Metal-LINC, at the size of ~ 30 × 30 mm.