Fabrication and Enhanced Thermal Conductivity of Boron Nitride and Polyarylene Ether Nitrile Hybrids

Excellent thermal resistance and thermal conductivity are preconditions of materials to be used at elevated temperatures. Herein, boron nitride and polyarylene ether nitrile hybrids (PEN-g-BN) with excellent thermal resistance and thermal conductivity are fabricated. Phthalonitrile-modified BN (BN-CN) is prepared by reacting hydroxylated BN with isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and 3-aminophxylphthalonitrile (3-APN), and then characterized by FT-IR, UV-Vis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The obtained BN-CN is introduced to a phthalonitrile end-capped PEN (PEN-Ph) matrix to prepare BN-CN/PEN composites. After curing at 340 °C for 4 h, PEN-g-BN hybrids are fabricated by a self-crosslinking reaction of cyano groups (-CN) from BN-CN and PEN-Ph. The fabricated PEN-g-BN hybrids are confirmed through FT-IR, UV-Vis, SEM and gel content measurements. The PEN-g-BN hybrids demonstrate excellent thermal resistance with their glass transition temperature (T_g) and decomposition temperatures (T_d) being higher than 235 °C and 530 °C, respectively. Additionally, the thermal conductivity of the prepared PEN-g-BN hybrids is up to 0.74 W/(m·k), intensifying competitiveness of PEN-g-BN hybrids for applications at elevated temperatures.