Boron nitride@graphene oxide hybrids for epoxy composites with enhanced thermal conductivity

Abstract

Polymer-based materials have widely been used for electronics packaging owing to their excellent physical and chemical properties. However, polymer materials usually have low thermal conductivity, which thus may impair the performance and reliability of modern electronics. In this paper, we report an epoxy-based composite with increased thermal conductivity by using graphene oxide-encapsulated boron nitride (h-BN@GO) hybrids as fillers. The thermal conductivity of the obtained composites increased with the loading of h-BN@GO hybrids to a maximum of 2.23 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ when the loading of h-BN@GO hybrids was 40 wt%, which is double that of composites filled with h-BN. This increase is attributed to the presence of GO, which improved the compatibility of h-BN with epoxy resin, along with the reduced interfacial thermal resistance between h-BN and epoxy resin. In addition, the effects of h-BN@GO hybrids on the thermal and dielectric properties of epoxy composites were also investigated. The prepared h-BN@GO/epoxy composites exhibit outstanding performance in dimensional stability, slightly reduced thermal stability, and enhanced dielectric properties, which make them suitable as excellent electronics packaging materials.