Development of Thermally Conductive Polyurethane Composite by Low Filler Loading of Spherical BN/PMMA Composite Powder

The issue of electronic heat dissipation has received much attention in recent times and has become one of the key factors in electronic components such as circuit boards. Therefore, designing of materials with good thermal conductivity is vital. In this work, a thermally conductive SBP/PU composite was prepared wherein the spherical h-BN@PMMA (SBP) composite powders were dispersed in the polyurethane (PU) matrix. The thermal conductivity of SBP was found to be significantly higher than that of the pure h-BN/PU composite at the same h-BN filler loading. The SBP/PU composite can reach a high thermal conductivity of 7.3 Wm−1 K−1 which is twice as high as that of pure h-BN/PU composite without surface treatment in the same condition. This enhancement in the property can be attributed to the uniform dispersion of SBP in the PU polymer matrix that leads to a three-dimensional continuous heat conduction thereby improving the heat diffusion of the entire composite. Hence, we provide a valuable method for preparing a 3-dimensional heat flow path in polyurethane composite, leading to a high thermal conductivity with a small amount of filler.