Epoxy-Thiol Systems Filled with Boron Nitride for High Thermal Conductivity Applications

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 340
• Main Authors: Hutchinson, John M, Román, Frida, Folch, Adrià
• Format: Journal Article Publication
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 20.03.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Agglomerates; Assaig de materials; Boron nitride; Boron-epoxy composites; Calor; Calorimetry; Conducció; Differential scanning calorimetry; Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC); Enginyeria dels materials; Epoxy; Epoxy compounds; Epòxids; Glass transition temperature; Heat conductivity; Heat of reaction; Heat transfer; Nitrur de bor; Reaction kinetics; Testing; Thermal conductivity; Thiol; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC; thiol; differential scanning calorimetry (DSC); boron nitride; thermal conductivity; epoxy
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym10030340

An epoxy-thiol system filled with boron nitride (BN), in the form of 80 µm agglomerates, has been investigated with a view to achieving enhanced thermal conductivity. The effect of BN content on the cure reaction kinetics has been studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the thermal conductivity of the cured samples has been measured by the transient hot bridge method. The heat of reaction and the glass transition temperature of the fully cured samples are both independent of the BN content, but the cure reaction kinetics is not: with increasing BN content, the reaction first advances and is then delayed, this behaviour being more pronounced than for the same system with 6 µm BN particles, investigated previously. This dependence on BN content is attributed to the effects of heat transfer, and the DSC results can be correlated with the thermal conductivity of the cured systems, which is found to increase with both BN content and BN particle size. For a given BN content, the values of thermal conductivity obtained are significantly higher than many others reported in the literature, and achieve a value of over 4.0 W/mK for a BN content of about 40 vol %.