Surface modification of boron nitride via poly (dopamine) coating and preparation of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer/boron nitride composites with enhanced thermal conductivity

A biology-inspired approach was utilized to functionalize hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), to enhance the interfacial interactions in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer/boron nitride (ABS/BN) composites. The poly (dopamine), poly (DOPA) layer, was formed on the surface of BN platelets via spontaneously oxidative self-polymerization of DOPA in aqueous solution. The modified BN (named as mBN) coated with poly (DOPA) was mixed with ABS resin by melting. The strong interfacial interactions via π-π stacking plus Van der Waals, both derived from by poly (DOPA), significantly promoted not only the homogeneous dispersion of h-BN in the matrix, but also the effective interfacial stress transfer, leading to improve the impact strength of ABS/mBN even at slight mBN loadings. A high thermal conductivity of 0.501 W/(m·K) was obtained at 20 wt% mBN content, reaching 2.63 times of the value for pure ABS (0.176 W/(m·K)). Meanwhile, the ABS/mBN composites also exhibited an excellent electrical insulation property, which can be expected to be applied in the fields of thermal management and electrical enclosure.