In this study, we proposed CMP-PLAs to replace the Al heat sinks as heat sink materials, and investigated heat dissipation characteristics of the LED lighting devices using them. The crystallinity of the proposed CMP-PLA heat sinks decreased with increasing carbon nanotube contents in CMP-PLA. However, the thermal conductivity was improved with the increase of the carbon nanotube contents. The heat dissipation characteristics of the LED lighting devices using CMP-PLA heat sinks was improved with increasing carbon nanotube contents in CMP-PLA. For the LED lighting devices using CMP-PLA heat sinks with 40% carbon nanotube contents, the initial temperature measured at the heat sink plate was 27℃, which increased as time, and it was saturated around 56℃ after an hour. The LED lighting devices using CMP-PLA heat sinks are expected to be functional materials that can reduce their weight and improve their electric properties, compared to those using existing Al heat sinks.

In this paper, the characteristics of a carbon nanotube composite heat sink proposed to replace the advanced Al heat sinks for LED lighting devices were studied. Proposed CMP-PLA heat sink was made by mixing 20∼70 wt% carbon nanotube, 20∼70 wt% bio-degradable polymer of melt-blended PLA (poly lactic acid) and PBS (poly butylene succinate) and PLA nucleating agents composed of the mixture of soybean oil and biotites, at 150∼220℃ with 1,000∼1,500 rpm. Optical and electric characteristics of 7.5W LED lighting devices using heat sinks with such prepared CMP-PLA were investigated. And, the properties of the heat, which was not released from the CMP-PLA type heat sinks, was also investigated. The color temperature of LED lighting devices using the CMP-PLA heat sinks was 5,956 K,which is x= 0.32 and y= 0.34 in the XY chromaticity, and the color rendering index was 75. The luminous flux and the luminous efficiency of LED lighting devices using the CMP-PLA heat sinks was 540.6 lm and 72.68 lm/W respectively. Measured initial temperature of the heat sinks was 27℃, and their temperature increased as time to be saturated at 52℃ after an hour.