Enhanced thermal conductivity of natural rubber based thermal interfacial materials by constructing covalent bonds and three-dimensional networks

Abstract

With the rapid development of electronic integration technology, the timely and efficient heat dissipation capacity has become increasingly important to ensure reliability and lifetime of electronics. Thermal interface materials (TIMs) were considered as the best candidate to tackle this issue. In this work, the three-dimensional structures with covalent bond connections of boron nitride/natural rubber (BN/NR) thermal interface composites were successfully prepared and its possessed an ameliorated through-plane thermal conductivity of 0.79 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ when BN content were 25 wt%. The results demonstrated that three-dimensional network structures and chemical interactions between BN and NR had a significant contribution in reducing interfacial thermal resistance. Meanwhile, the sensitive thermal response, satisfactory electrical insulation and good mechanical properties made its own high probability for the TIMs applications. Importantly, this tactics created a new means to construct elastomer-based thermal management materials and applied for the electronic packing materials.