Improved thermal properties of epoxy composites filled with thermotropic liquid crystalline epoxy grafted aluminum nitride

A liquid crystalline epoxy (LCE) grafted AlN particles (LCE-g-AlN) were fabricated and then incorporated these into epoxy matrix to obtain the composites. The structure of LCE-g-AlN was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermal gravimetric analyses (TGA), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The morphology and thermal properties of composites were systematically investigated. The morphology of the epoxy/LCE-g-AlN composites performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated a homogeneous distribution of the LCE-g-AlN particles in epoxy. Moreover, the glass transition temperature (T g ), thermal stability, thermal conductivity and dynamic mechanical properties of composites showed a significant improvement due to the good miscibility and improvement of the interfacial interaction between LCE-g-AlN particles and epoxy matrix.