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Flexible BNOH@ polyurethane composites with high in-plane thermal conductivity for efficient thermal management

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Abstract

Develo** flexible thermal management materials is quite urgent for emerging flexible electronics and wearable devices. Here, a novel strategy is used to prepare hydroxyl-functionalized boron nitride@polyurethane (BNOH@PU) composites with desired BN orientation in the in-plane direction through the foaming process of PU and hot-pressing. BNOH flakes can react with isocyanates to form amido linkages, which is beneficial for reducing interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) between BNOH and PU. In addition, BNOH flakes will be rearranged along the direction of PU backbones through the volume compression of the foaming process and trend to be oriented in the in-plane direction after hot-pressing. The out-of-plane or in-plane thermal conductivities of the composites are 1.69 and 3.19 W m−1 K−1 at 30 wt% BNOH content, and the corresponding thermal conductivity enhancement (TCE) is 1986% and 3838%, respectively. Meanwhile, BNOH@PU exhibited low ITR between BNOH flakes (1.252 × 10−7 K m2/W), good flexibility and stretchability, which was a promising thermal management material for wearable devices.

Graphical Abstract

The interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) and the phonon scattering between fillers and polymer matrix could be reduced significantly via the hydroxyl functionalization of BN. In-plane thermal conductivity enhanced BNOH@PU composites with desired BN orientation in the in-plane direction through the foaming process of PU and hot-pressing.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Nature Science Foundations of China (No. 51873083).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, People’s Republic of China

    Xudong Yang, Ye Fang, Hongmin Cong, Zhengbai Zhao, Chao Yan & Yang Wang

  2. Wuxi DK Electronic Materials Co.,Ltd., Wuxi, 214200, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Wang

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  1. Xudong Yang
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  2. Ye Fang
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  3. Hongmin Cong
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  4. Zhengbai Zhao
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Contributions

XY involved in investigation, conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, data curation. YF took part in conceptualization, methodology. HC involved in conceptualization, methodology, validation. ZZ involved in methodology, data curation. CY took part in methodology, funding acquisition, supervision, writing—review & editing. YW involved in project administration, supervision, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing.

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Correspondence to Chao Yan or Yang Wang.

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10853_2024_9658_MOESM1_ESM.docx

The density of BNOH/PU with different fillers content before and after hot-pressing; The element map**s of BNOH@PU; Thermogravimetric analysis of PU and BNOH@PU. (DOCX 2657 KB)

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Yang, X., Fang, Y., Cong, H. et al. Flexible BNOH@ polyurethane composites with high in-plane thermal conductivity for efficient thermal management. J Mater Sci 59, 8220–8234 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-09658-6

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