Electrical and thermophysical properties of epoxy/aluminum nitride nanocomposites: Effects of nanoparticle surface modification

The traditional epoxy resin used for electrical and electronic industry has a poor thermal conductivity and no longer meets the increasingly cooling requirements of electric equipments and electronic devices. Ceramic nanoparticles with high thermal conductivity and low dielectric constant represent good candidates to improve the thermophysical properties of epoxy resin. This paper reports the effects of surface modification of AlN nanoparticles on morphology, glass transition, electrical property and thermal conductivity of the epoxy composites. Gamma-aminopropyl triethoxysilane was used as a silane coupling agent for the surface modification of the AlN nanoparticles. It was found that the surface modification of the nanoparticles not only improved the dispersion of the nanoparticles, but also showed an enhancement in electrical and thermophysical properties of the epoxy composites. The surface modification technology presented a strategy to prepare nanocomposites having high thermal conductivity simultaneously with low dielectric loss.