New plasma technique makes polymer composites five times better at moving heat
Researchers have developed a room-temperature process that dramatically improves how well heat moves through plastic composites used in electronics and aerospace. By treating boron nitride particles with microplasma before mixing them into polymers, the team increased thermal transport by 8.5 times compared to untreated plastics—potentially enabling smaller, more efficient devices and systems.
Originaltitel: Microplasma Processed Ultrathin Boron Nitride Nanosheets for Polymer Nanocomposites with Enhanced Thermal Transport Performance
<p>This Research Article reports on the enhancement of the thermal transport properties of nanocomposite materials containing hexagonal boron nitride in poly(vinyl alcohol) through room-temperature atmospheric pressure direct-current microplasma processing. Results show that the microplasma treatment leads to exfoliation of the hexagonal boron nitride in isopropyl alcohol, reducing the number of stacks from amp;gt;30 to a few or single layers. The thermal diffusivity of the resulting nanocomposites reaches 8.5 mm(2) s(-1) times greater than blank poly(vinyl alcohol) and twice that of nanocomposites containing nonplasma treated boron nitride nanosheets. From TEM analysis, we observe much less aggregation Of the nanosheets after plasma processing along with indications of an amorphous carbon interfacial layer, which may contribute to stable dispersion of boron nitride nanosheets in the resulting plasma treated colloids.</p>