Enhanced thermal conductivity and electrical insulation properties of polymer composites via constructing Pglass/CNTs confined hybrid fillers

The preparation of thermal conductive and electrical insulating polymer composites has gained extensive interest due to their important applications. The morphological control of functional fillers is thought as an effective approach to achieve this. Herein, a novel method involves the confinement of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in phosphate glass (Pglass) domains is presented. Due to the large interfacial tension between Pglass and polymer matrix, strong confinement of CNTs can be achieved while CNTs is incorporated into Pglass. Thus, the formation of CNTs conductive networks in polymer matrix can be prohibited in ternary polymer/Pglass/CNTs composites. Comparing with similar composites having high density polyethylene (HDPE) to realize confinement on CNTs, much higher thermal conductivity and much lower electrical conductivity are observed in polymer composites based on polypropylene (PP) containing boron nitride (BN). It is thought that the use of Pglass can provide an effective method for the preparation of thermally conductive and electrically insulating polymer composites.