Polymer Composite with Improved Thermal Conductivity by Constructing a Hierarchically Ordered Three-Dimensional Interconnected Network of BN

Jiantao Hu; Yun Huang; Yimin Yao; Guiran Pan; Jiajia Sun; Xiaoliang Zeng; Rong Sun; Jian-Bin Xu; Bo Song; Ching-Ping Wong

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b02410

Polymer Composite with Improved Thermal Conductivity by Constructing a Hierarchically Ordered Three-Dimensional Interconnected Network of BN

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Apr 19;9(15):13544-13553. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b02410. Epub 2017 Apr 5.

Authors

Jiantao Hu^{1

2}, Yun Huang^{1

2}, Yimin Yao^{1

3}, Guiran Pan^{1

4}, Jiajia Sun^{1

2}, Xiaoliang Zeng^{1

3}, Rong Sun¹, Jian-Bin Xu⁵, Bo Song⁶, Ching-Ping Wong^{1

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Shenzhen 518055, China.
² Department of Nano Science and Technology Institute, University of Science and Technology of China , Suzhou 215123, China.
³ Shenzhen College of Advanced Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum , Beijing 102249, China.
⁵ Department of Electronics Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong 999077, China.
⁶ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States.

PMID: 28362080
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b02410

Abstract

In this work, we report a fabrication of epoxy resin/ordered three-dimensional boron nitride (3D-BN) network composites through combination of ice-templating self-assembly and infiltration methods. The polymer composites possess much higher thermal conductivity up to 4.42 W m^-1 K^-1 at relatively low loading 34 vol % than that of random distribution composites (1.81 W m^-1 K^-1 for epoxy/random 3D-BN composites, 1.16 W m^-1 K^-1 for epoxy/random BN composites) and exhibit a high glass transition temperature (178.9-229.2 °C) and dimensional stability (22.7 ppm/K). We attribute the increased thermal conductivity to the unique oriented 3D-BN thermally conducive network, in which the much higher thermal conductivity along the in-plane direction of BN microplatelets is most useful. This study paves the way for thermally conductive polymer composites used as thermal interface materials for next-generation electronic packaging and 3D integration circuits.

Keywords: boron nitride; ordered network; polymer composites; thermal conductivity; thermal interface resistance.