Highly thermal conductive epoxy nanocomposites filled with 3D BN/C spatial network prepared by salt template assisted method

The construction of heat conduction paths in the polymer matrix is essential to improve the thermal management performance of polymer composites. A three-dimensional (3D) thermally conductive network with regular filler structures is very attractive for building fast conductive paths in polymer composites. Herein, a unique 3D interconnected tannic acid modified boron nitride (BN) and C network (M-BN/C) was successfully fabricated by the carbonization of M-BN/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) skeletons, which were obtained via simple salt template assisted strategy to enhance the thermal transfer properties of composites. The highly thermally conductive epoxy composites (M-BN/C/EP) were then prepared by impregnating epoxy resin (EP) into the 3D M-BN/C network. The thermal conductivity of the composites with a M − BN loading of 23 wt% is as high as 1.524 W/(m·K), which exhibits a significant enhancement of 702% compared with pure EP. In addition, our composite exhibited outstanding thermal behaviors during heating and cooling processes. Furthermore, the finite element heat conduction simulation further analyzes the heat conduction mechanism of epoxy composites from the theoretical level. This work provides a new idea to significantly enhance the thermal conductivity of thermal management materials.