Preparation and thermal conductivity of copper phthalocyanine grafted boron nitride nanosheets

Copper phthalocyanine grafted boron nitride nano-sheet hybrids (CuPc-g-BN) were prepared for the improvement of thermal conductivity of CuPc. Hydroxyl functionalized BN (BN-OH), obtained by ball-milling of BN, was reacted with isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and 3-aminophenoxyphthalonitrile (3-APN) sequentially to form BN-IPDI-CN. CuPc-g-BN was prepared by in-situ polymerization of BN-IPDI-CN with 1,3,5-tri-(3,4-dicyanophenoxy) benzene (TPh) and CuCl. The CuPc-g-BN and the intermediates were characterized by TEM, AFM, XPS, FTIR and UV-vis. The results show the formation of the hybrid effectively enhances the thermal conductivity of CuPc, which is as high as 0.63 W/(m·K), with an increment of 290%, when the mass fraction of BN-IPDI-CN is 50 wt%.