Anchoring modified polystyrene to boron nitride nanosheets as highly thermal conductive composites for heat dissipation

Enhancing the heat dissipation capacity of polymer-based composites requires effectively improving the compatibility of filler in a polymer matrix. Herein, hydroxylated boron nitride (BN-OH) and modified polystyrene (mPS) are combined to achieve a high thermal conductive BN-OH@mPS composite by using a facile in-situ polymerization. Due to the strong interface interaction between BN-OH and mPS, the proposed BN-OH@mPS composite can have high thermal conductivity (TC). Specifically, the TC of the composite containing 10 wt% BN-OH can reach 1.231 W/mK, which is 142% higher than that of BN/PS manufactured by a traditional method. Additionally, such a special structure brings a delayed decomposition process of the composite, making it possess high thermal stability. Overall, this serves as a universal route for developing thermal conductive non-polar polymer/inorganic filler composites.