The construction of an interconnected nanofiller network is critical for the preparation of highly effective thermal management composites, though it remains a challenge to eliminate the anisotropic thermal conductivity of the nanofiller-induced defective interfacial heat-flow efficiency. In this work, a facile and novel approach is proposed to optimize phonon transport by building a salt template-assisted three-dimensional (3D) carbonization nanohybrid network in an epoxy system. The advantage of the salt template relied on green and scalable merits to construct a 3D nanofiller network and supporting abundant holes for the introduction of a polymer matrix after washing. Meanwhile, the contained carbonization materials contributed to reducing the interfacial phonon scattering issues of the filler/filler and filler/polymer for an efficient heat-flow pathway. As a result of this effect, the prepared epoxy nano-composites presented a high thermal conductivity of 4.27 W/m K, resulting in a 1841% increase compared to the thermal conductivity of the pure epoxy resin. In addition, the epoxy composites exhibited good mechanical properties and thermal conductive performance during heating and cooling. Therefore, this study may provide new insights into the design and preparation of thermal management polymers to meet the applicational requirements of electronics.
Keywords: epoxy composite; heat-flow pathway; salt template; thermal management materials; three-dimensional carbonization nano-network.