Room-temperature repeatedly processable baroplastic/boron nitride thermal management composite

Abstract

Baroplastics show great superiority in properties over common polymers that are processed at high temperatures, such as energy-saving, less thermal degradation, high repeatability, durability, etc. In this work, we synthesized a typical baroplastic:poly(butyl acrylate)@polystyrene (PBA@PS) core–shell polymer, and then incorporated hexagonal boron nitrides (h-BNs) into it to prepare a thermal management composite. The mechanism of the pressure-induced flow endows the composite with excellent room temperature processability and a high loading of h-BNs, thereby constructing such great excellent conduction pathways of h-BNs that a high thermal conductivity of 15.1 W (m K)⁻¹, good thermal stability and remarkable heat dissipation capacity were achieved at a loading of 60 vol% h-BNs. More importantly, the PBA@PS/BN composite could be repeatedly processed multiple times while the high thermal conductivity was retained. Also, the PBA@PS/BN composite has suitable mechanical properties, and their hardness is comparable to commercial thermal management products, such as thermally conductive silicon pads. Therefore, they have the potential to replace conventional silicon pads. In this case, their major shortcoming (e.g., difficulty of recycling or reprocessing) can be overcome. Our work proved the application potential of the PBA@PS/BN composite as a thermal management material and the possibility of replacing commercial thermal silicon pads for the first time, which can provide a reference for future advanced functional and valuable baroplastic materials.