Enhanced Thermal and Electrical Properties of Functionalized h-BN/Epoxy Resin Composites

Hexagonal boron nitride nanosheet (h-BN) is widely applied to polymer-based nanocomposites due to its good thermal and insulation properties. Moreover, surface modification can contribute to improving dispersity and compatibility of nanofillers in polymer-based nanocomposites. Epoxy resin (EP) nanocomposites filled with functionalized h-BN can further improve its thermal and insulating properties. In this work, a novel surface modification method of grafting dopamine (DA) at the end of 3-glycidoxypropyl-trimethoxysilane (KH560) is proposed to modify h-BN (DKB) as well as DKB and its corresponding EP nanocomposites are prepared successfully. The dispersibility of EP composites filled with h-BN is firstly discussed. Besides, the thermal performance and breakdown field strength of EP nanocomposites filled with modified h-BN are mainly investigated. The results show that surface modification method of DKB can effectively enhance the dispersity and compatibility of h-BN in the EP polymer. The thermal stability and thermal conductivity of DKB/EP nanocomposites has significant improvement. Meanwhile, breakdown field strength of DKB/EP nanocomposites is also superior to that of other h-BN/EP nanocomposites.