Heat Transfer Enhancement in Thermal Energy Storage Gels by Size Engineering of Boron Nitride Towards 5G Chip Thermal Management

High-power consumption causes excessive heat of 5G devices, compromising performance and lifespan. Phase change materials (PCMs) enable passive, constant-temperature thermal management but suffer from leakage and low thermal conductivity, limiting their application. In this work, a strategy of heat transfer enhancement in thermal energy storage gels by size engineering of boron nitride (BN) towards 5G thermal management is proposed. Specifically, tetradecanol (TD), whose thermal storage temperature is close to the thermal management temperature of electronic devices, is selected as the working medium. Based on the van der Waals force and hydrogen bond between TD and styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS), TD@SEBS@BN gels (TSBGs) with suppressed leakage are formed. The enthalpy of the TSBG is as high as 128.12 J g −1 , stably storing heat at around 35.84°C. The synergistic enhancement of heat transfer of TSBGs by large/small-sized BN is studied. An efficient heat transfer network has been established by coupling large-sized BN (average 30 μm) and small-sized BN (average 1 μm). The thermal conductivity of TSBG is increased from 0.304 W m −1 K −1 to a high value of 0.966 W m −1 K −1 (an increase of 317.76%). The efficient thermal management of 5G electronic components is finally realized using TSBGs.