Influence of microscopic ordered arrangement and high-voltage directional molding in epoxy liquid crystal dispersed membranes on intrinsic thermal conductivity

Flexible epoxy liquid crystal dispersed membranes (ELCMs) with high thermal conductivity (TC) were successfully prepared by using high-voltage directional molding. Epoxy liquid crystal monomers (Epoxy-LC 1 and Epoxy-LC 2 ) were uniformly dispersed into flexible epoxy polymers cured by pentaerythritol tetra (3-mercaptopropionate). TC of ELCM 1 and ELCM 2 reached 1.27 W·(m·K) −1 and 2.36 W·(m·K) −1 with 30 wt% content of Epoxy-LC 1 and Epoxy-LC 2 , which were 4.5 times and 8.43 times higher than that of pure epoxy polymer, respectively. Tensile strength and elongation at break of ELCM 1 and ELCM 2 were up to 8.1 MPa, 23 % and 23.8 MPa, 46.7 %, respectively. On the one hand, the favorable results are attributed to the molecular chains’ microscopic ordered arrangement by using high-voltage directional molding. On the other hand, the more important reason is that the hydrogen-bond interactions between −C=O and –OH of molecular chains in Epoxy-LC 2 and epoxy polymer. This work offers a new way to design flexible epoxy resins and intrinsic thermal conductive polymers.