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

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.