Hot-pressing induced orientation of boron nitride in polycarbonate composites with enhanced thermal conductivity

Thermally conductive polymer composites are commonly used in thermal management field because of their wide range of utilization, ease of processing and low cost. However, conventional polymer composites usually suffer from an undesired enhancement of thermal conductivity. Herein, we report on boron nitride (BN) plates/polycarbonate composites in which BN plates are aligned via hot-pressing. Since the orderly arrangement of BN plates can provide pathways for phonon transport, the obtained composites possess a maximum thermal conductivity of 3.09 W m−1 K−1 along the aligned direction as the BN loading reaching 18.5 vol%. The thermal infrared characterization also indicates that BN/polycarbonate composites perform higher heating or cooling rate due to the good heat conduction capacity. This strategy can potentially pave the way for the design and preparation of highly thermally conductive and mechanically strong materials for thermal-management applications.