Microplasma Processed Ultrathin Boron Nitride Nanosheets for Polymer Nanocomposites with Enhanced Thermal Transport Performance

Ri-Chao Zhang; Dan Sun; Ai Lu; Sadegh Askari; Manuel Macias-Montero; Paul Joseph; Dorian Dixon; Kostya Ostrikov; Paul Maguire; Davide Mariotti

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b01531

Microplasma Processed Ultrathin Boron Nitride Nanosheets for Polymer Nanocomposites with Enhanced Thermal Transport Performance

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Jun 1;8(21):13567-72. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b01531. Epub 2016 May 17.

Authors

Ri-Chao Zhang^{1

2

3}, Dan Sun², Ai Lu⁴, Sadegh Askari⁵, Manuel Macias-Montero³, Paul Joseph⁶, Dorian Dixon³, Kostya Ostrikov^{7

8}, Paul Maguire³, Davide Mariotti³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, 310002, PR China.
² School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, BT9 5AH, U.K.
³ Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre (NIBEC), University of Ulster , Newtownabbey, BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland, U.K.
⁴ Institute of Chemical Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics , Mianyang 621900, Sichuan People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)/Plasma and Coatings Physics (PLASM), Linköping University , 581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
⁶ Centre for Environmental Safety and Risk Engineering (CESARE), College of Engineering and Science, Victoria University , Room 4206, Level 2, Building 4 Hoppers Lane, Werribee Campus Victoria 3030, Melbourne, Australia.
⁷ School of Chemistry, Physics, and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology , Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia.
⁸ Joint CSIRO-QUT Sustainable Materials and Devices Laboratory, CSIRO , P.O. Box 218, Lindfield, New South Wales 2070, Australia.

PMID: 27153343
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b01531

Abstract

This Research Article reports on the enhancement of the thermal transport properties of nanocomposite materials containing hexagonal boron nitride in poly(vinyl alcohol) through room-temperature atmospheric pressure direct-current microplasma processing. Results show that the microplasma treatment leads to exfoliation of the hexagonal boron nitride in isopropyl alcohol, reducing the number of stacks from >30 to a few or single layers. The thermal diffusivity of the resulting nanocomposites reaches 8.5 mm(2) s(-1), 50 times greater than blank poly(vinyl alcohol) and twice that of nanocomposites containing nonplasma treated boron nitride nanosheets. From TEM analysis, we observe much less aggregation of the nanosheets after plasma processing along with indications of an amorphous carbon interfacial layer, which may contribute to stable dispersion of boron nitride nanosheets in the resulting plasma treated colloids.

Keywords: boron nitride; exfoliation; microplasma; phonon; polymer nanocomposites; thermal transport.