Synergistic effect of BN and graphene nanosheets in 3D framework on the enhancement of thermal conductive properties of polymeric composites

Abstract

In this work, we reported a synergistic effect of boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) with graphene in the 3D BNNSs/graphene framework (BGF) on the enhancement of thermal conductive properties of polyamide-6 (PA6) composites. The 3D BGF was self-assembled by embedding BNNSs into 3D graphene framework (GF). And the PA6 composites were obtained by in-situ polymerization of PA6 chains in the pores of the 3D framework. The thermal conductivity (TC) of PA6 composites with BGF (1.6 wt% BNNS/6.8 wt% graphene) was improved to 0.891 W·m−1·K−1. This value indicated that additional introduction of 1.6 wt% BNNSs could increase the TC up to 87.6% and 350% compared with the composites containing 6.8 wt% 3D GF (0.475 W·m−1·K−1) and neat PA6 (0.196 W·m−1·K−1), respectively. The high efficiency of BNNSs on the TC enhancement could be attributed to the factors including the unobstructed 3D thermal conductive paths constructed by BNNSs, and the morphology-promoted synergistic effect between BNNSs and graphene nanosheets.