Construction of three-dimensional interconnected boron nitride/sliver networks within epoxy composites for enhanced thermal conductivity

With the advent of the 5G era, the conspicuous increases in operating power and thermogenic capacity of integrated electronic components necessitated the development of enhanced thermal conductive polymeric composites with excellent heat dissipation properties. Herein, the polydopamine (PDA) and silver (Ag) modified BN (BN-PDA-Ag) was synthesized and a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected BN-PDA-Ag porous network was successfully fabricated by the salt template-assisted method to improve the thermal conductivity property of epoxy based composites. The high thermal conductive epoxy resin composites (3D BN-PDA-Ag/EP) were obtained by infiltrating epoxy into the 3D BN-PDA-Ag porous network. On one hand, the 3D BN-PDA-Ag porous skeleton provided continuous transfer paths for phonons, which was conducive to reducing phonon scattering. On the other hand, the Ag nanoparticles loaded on the BN surface bridged the adjacent BN sheets, significantly decreasing the thermal contact resistance between adjacent fillers. The isotropic thermal conductivity (TC) of 3D BN-PDA-Ag/EP composite with a BN-PDA-Ag content of 20.3 wt% reached 1.37 W/(m·K), which exhibited a evident enhancement of 661% compared with pure epoxy. The thermal management simulation and application results showed the composite had enormous application potential for electronic devices and components in heat dissipation.