Flexible polyimide films hybrid with functionalized boron nitride and graphene oxide simultaneously to improve thermal conduction and dimensional stability.

Coupling agent-functionalized boron nitride (f-BN) and glycidyl methacrylate-grafted graphene (g-TrG) are simultaneously blended with polyimide (PI) to fabricate a flexible, electrically insulating and thermally conductive PI composite film. The silk-like g-TrG successfully fills in the gap between PI and f-BN to complete the thermal conduction network. In addition, the strong interaction between surface functional groups on f-BN and g-TrG contributes to the effective phonon transfer in the PI matrix. The thermal conductivity (TC) of the PI/f-BN composite films containing additional 1 wt % of g-TrG is at least doubled to the value of PI/f-BN and as high as 16 times to that of the pure PI. The hybrid film PI/f-BN-50/g-TrG-1 exhibits excellent flexibility, sufficient insulating property, the highest TC of 2.11 W/mK, and ultralow coefficient of thermal expansion of 11 ppm/K, which are perfect conditions for future flexible substrate materials requiring efficient heat dissipation.