Liquid Crystalline Epoxies with Lateral Substituents Showing a Low Dielectric Constant and High Thermal Conductivity

Abstract

In this work, liquid crystalline epoxies with lateral substituents were synthesized and cured with aromatic amines or anhydride. The liquid crystalline phase structure of liquid crystalline epoxies with lateral substituents was determined by polarized optical microscopy. The relationship between thermal conductivity and dielectric properties and liquid crystalline domain structure was discussed in the paper. The samples show high thermal conductivity up to 0.29 W/(m × K), due to the orientation of mesogenic units in epoxies. The sample's low dielectric constant of 2.29 is associated with the oriented mesogenic units and long nonpolar lateral substituents. This indicates a new way to obtain materials with high thermal conductivity and a low dielectric constant by introducing oriented mesogenic units into cross-linked epoxy systems. The water repellency is reflected in the contact angles of 92–98°, which are apparently higher than that of conventional epoxy systems. It was also found that the better toughness of liquid crystalline epoxies with lateral substituents was attributed to the existence of long flexible alkyl lateral substituents.