The development of highly thermally conductive composites with excellent electrical insulation has attracted extensive attention, which is of great significance to solve the increasingly severe heat concentration issue of electronic equipment. Herein, we report a new strategy to prepare boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) via an ion-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation method. Then, silver nanoparticle (AgNP) modified BNNS (BNNS@Ag) was obtained by in situ reduction properties. The exfoliation yield of BNNS was approximately 50% via the ion-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation method. Subsequently, aramid nanofiber (ANF)/BNNS@Ag composites were prepared by vacuum filtration. Owing to the “brick-and-mortar” structure formed inside the composite and the adhesion of AgNP, the interfacial thermal resistance was effectively reduced. Therefore, the in-plane thermal conductivity of ANF/BNNS@Ag composites was as high as 11.51 W m−1 K−1, which was 233.27% higher than that of pure ANF (3.45 W m−1 K−1). The addition of BNNS@Ag maintained tensile properties (tensile strength of 129.14 MPa). Moreover, the ANF/BNNS@Ag films also had good dielectric properties and the dielectric constant was below 2.5 (103 Hz). Hence, the ANF/BNNS@Ag composite shows excellent thermal management performance, and the electrical insulation and mechanical properties of the matrix are retained, indicating its potential application prospects in high pressure and high temperature application environments.
Surface modification and magnetic alignment of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets for highly thermally conductive composites
