A star-shaped crystalline curing agent for thermally conductive epoxy composites: Synthesis and thermal management performance

초록

High performance epoxy composites with high thermal conductivity have a great potential as thermal interface material (TIM) for thermal management packaging of electric devices. However, like most polymers, epoxy also has very low thermal conductivity of 0.2 W/mK, so there is an increasing demand for the development of epoxy with high thermal conductivity. Here, a crystalline curing agent, benzene-1,3,5-triyl triaminobenzoate (BTAB), with a star-shaped molecular structure, is synthesized to produce a thermally conductive epoxy matrix of BTAB-epoxy and its composites. In addition, surface-treated boron nitride (BN) is added to the epoxy resin to create effective heat pathways in the through-plane direction. The resultant composite demonstrates excellent characteristics, including a thermal conductivity of 3.21 W/mK in the through-plane direction, a tensile strength of 47.4 MPa, and a lap-shear stress of 16 MPa. Employing this composite in a light-emitting diode (LED) application enables effective heat management that leads to a 64 °C reduction in operating temperature. Hence, BTAB-epoxy/BN-OH composites are promising candidates for improving the thermal management of electronic devices.

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