Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites
It remains a major challenge to develop insulating polymeric composites with high thermal conductivity and low viscosity for impregnation applications. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has proven a competitive thermal conductivity enhancer for polymers. However, when introduced into a polymer matrix, r...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/162456 |
| _version_ | 1811687288649809920 |
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| author | Yan, Weili Chen, Xuelong Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Chen, Hui Gill, Vincent Lambourne, Alexis Hu, Xiao |
| author2 | School of Materials Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Materials Science and Engineering Yan, Weili Chen, Xuelong Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Chen, Hui Gill, Vincent Lambourne, Alexis Hu, Xiao |
| author_sort | Yan, Weili |
| collection | NTU |
| description | It remains a major challenge to develop insulating polymeric composites with high thermal conductivity and low viscosity for impregnation applications. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has proven a competitive thermal conductivity enhancer for polymers. However, when introduced into a polymer matrix, raw BN usually undergoes severe sedimentation and thus uneven distribution throughout the matrix, which undermines the uniformity in thermal conductivity and other physical properties. In this work, BN was ball milled with part of the host epoxy resin in slurry state and then directly mixed with the rest in the same pot to obtain a composite resin. Without the tedious processes of filler separation, purification and re-dispersion, the epoxy-assisted slurry-state ball milling greatly improved the suspension stability of BN platelets in epoxy resin, leading to a uniform filler distribution after curing. Consequently, the thermal conductivity of epoxy resin was boosted from 0.19 W·m−1·K−1 by 132% to 0.44 W·m−1·K−1 with the addition of 9.1 wt% loading of BN. Moreover, the composite resin demonstrated high impregnation performance on litz wire. The material preparation method developed in this work is facile, time-effective and scalable, especially suitable for fabricating thermally conductive yet low-viscosity composite resins for impregnation applications. The method may also be extended to develop other polymeric composites incorporated with layer-structured filler materials. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:13:56Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/162456 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:13:56Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1624562022-10-19T07:41:51Z Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites Yan, Weili Chen, Xuelong Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Chen, Hui Gill, Vincent Lambourne, Alexis Hu, Xiao School of Materials Science and Engineering Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab Temasek Laboratories @ NTU Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Engineering::Materials Thermal Conductivity Boron Nitride It remains a major challenge to develop insulating polymeric composites with high thermal conductivity and low viscosity for impregnation applications. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has proven a competitive thermal conductivity enhancer for polymers. However, when introduced into a polymer matrix, raw BN usually undergoes severe sedimentation and thus uneven distribution throughout the matrix, which undermines the uniformity in thermal conductivity and other physical properties. In this work, BN was ball milled with part of the host epoxy resin in slurry state and then directly mixed with the rest in the same pot to obtain a composite resin. Without the tedious processes of filler separation, purification and re-dispersion, the epoxy-assisted slurry-state ball milling greatly improved the suspension stability of BN platelets in epoxy resin, leading to a uniform filler distribution after curing. Consequently, the thermal conductivity of epoxy resin was boosted from 0.19 W·m−1·K−1 by 132% to 0.44 W·m−1·K−1 with the addition of 9.1 wt% loading of BN. Moreover, the composite resin demonstrated high impregnation performance on litz wire. The material preparation method developed in this work is facile, time-effective and scalable, especially suitable for fabricating thermally conductive yet low-viscosity composite resins for impregnation applications. The method may also be extended to develop other polymeric composites incorporated with layer-structured filler materials. Nanyang Technological University National Research Foundation (NRF) The authors would like to thank Nanyang Technological University, Rolls Royce and National Research Foundation of Singapore for the financial support provided through the Corp Lab@University scheme. 2022-10-19T07:41:51Z 2022-10-19T07:41:51Z 2022 Journal Article Yan, W., Chen, X., Lim, J. S. K., Chen, H., Gill, V., Lambourne, A. & Hu, X. (2022). Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 156, 106868-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2022.106868 1359-835X https://hdl.handle.net/10356/162456 10.1016/j.compositesa.2022.106868 2-s2.0-85126395667 156 106868 en Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing © 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Materials Thermal Conductivity Boron Nitride Yan, Weili Chen, Xuelong Lim, Jacob Song Kiat Chen, Hui Gill, Vincent Lambourne, Alexis Hu, Xiao Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites |
| title | Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites |
| title_full | Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites |
| title_fullStr | Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites |
| title_full_unstemmed | Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites |
| title_short | Epoxy-assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites |
| title_sort | epoxy assisted ball milling of boron nitride towards thermally conductive impregnable composites |
| topic | Engineering::Materials Thermal Conductivity Boron Nitride |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/162456 |
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