Facile and scalable preparation of ultra-large boron nitride nanosheets and their use for highly thermally conductive polymer composites

doi:10.1007/s11706-022-0587-7

Front. Mater. Sci.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (1) : 220587 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-022-0587-7

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Facile and scalable preparation of ultra-large boron nitride nanosheets and their use for highly thermally conductive polymer composites

Wenyu WU¹, Bin GUO¹, Xiaojing LIU¹, Huaxin MA¹, Zhao ZHANG¹, Zhi ZHANG¹, Minghao CUI¹, Yu GU², Ruijun ZHANG¹(

)

¹. State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
². Academic Affairs Office, Tangshan Normal University, Tangshan 063000, China

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Abstract

Due to their excellent physical and chemical properties, boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) have shown great application potential in many fields. However, the difficulty in scalable preparation of large-size BNNSs is still the current factor that limits this. Herein, a simple yet efficient microwave-assisted chemical exfoliation strategy is proposed to realize scalable preparation of BNNSs by using perchloric acid as the edge modifier and intercalation agent of h-BN. The as-obtained BNNSs behave a thin-layered structure (average thickness of 3.9 nm) with a high yield of ~16%. Noteworthy, the size of BNNSs is maintained to the greatest extent so as to realize the preparation of BNNSs with ultra-large size (up to 7.1 μm), which is the largest so far obtained for the top-down exfoliated BNNSs. Benefiting from the large size, it can significantly improve the thermal diffusion coefficient and the thermal conductivity of polyvinyl alcohol by 51 and 62 times respectively, both showing a higher value than the one previously reported. This demonstrates that the prepared BNNSs have great promise in enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymer materials.

Keywords boron nitride nanosheet thermal conductivity chemical exfoliation large size

Corresponding Author(s): Ruijun ZHANG

About author: Miaojie Yang and Mahmood Brobbey Oppong contributed equally to this work.

Online First Date: 24 February 2022 Issue Date: 02 March 2022

Cite this article:

Wenyu WU,Bin GUO,Xiaojing LIU, et al. Facile and scalable preparation of ultra-large boron nitride nanosheets and their use for highly thermally conductive polymer composites[J]. Front. Mater. Sci., 2022, 16(1): 220587.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/10.1007/s11706-022-0587-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/Y2022/V16/I1/220587

Fig.1 Characterization of h-BN and BN-180: (a) FTIR spectra and (b) XRD patterns of pristine h-BN powders and BN-180; SEM images of (c) pristine h-BN and (d) BN-180.

Fig.2 SEM images of as-obtained BNNSs.

Fig.3 Schematic illustration of the fabrication process of BNNSs.

Fig.4 Structural characterizations of h-BN and BNNSs: (a) XRD patterns; (b) Raman spectra; (c) XPS survey spectra; (d)(e) high-resolution XPS results of B 1s and N 1s.

Fig.5 Characterization of the obtained BNNSs: (a) typical TEM image; (b) HR-TEM and corresponding FFT images; (c) typical SEM image of BNNSs dispersed on the micro-grid; (d) lateral size distribution of BNNSs analyzed from 40 flakes; (e) typical AFM image; (f) thickness distribution analyzed by AFM statistics from 40 flakes.

Fig.6 (a) SEM image of the PVA/BNNS-35. (b) Tensile stress–strain curves of PVA/BNNS composite films with different loadings. (c) Photos of PVA/BNNS-35 before and after bending at 180° for 100 times. (d) The in-plane thermal diffusivity and conductivity of all films. (e) Comparison of thermal conductivity of the composite film in this work with BN-based composites reported in previous studies.

Fig. S1 SEM images of the products obtained under different experimental conditions: (a)(b) BNNS-0; (c)(d) BNNS-5; (e)(f) BNNS-15; (g)(h) BNNS-3MW.

Fig. S2 Comparison of in-plan thermal conductivities of composite films with BNNSs and h-BN as fillers, respectively.

Table S1 Comparison of the lateral size of BNNSs obtained by various exfoliation methods [S1–S13]

Table S2 Tensile properties of the composite films with different mass fractions of BNNS fillers

Table S3 Physical properties of composite films with different mass fractions of BNNS fillers

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