Flexible yet impermeable composites with wrinkle structured BNNSs assembling for high-performance thermal management

Abstract

Efficient thermal management has become one of the most critical issues of electronics because of the high heat flux generated from highly integrated, miniaturized, and increased power. Here we report highly flexible composites with aligned and overlapping interconnected boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) assembled in wrinkle structures. Besides high in-plane thermal conductivity of more than 26.58 W m−1 K−1, such structure rendered enhanced through-plane conduction along with increasing pre-stain. As thermal interface materials (TIMs) of both rigid and flexible devices, the composites revealed an outstanding thermal cooling capability outperforming some commercial TIMs. During a record-long bending process of more than 3000 cycles, the maximum temperature fluctuation of the flexible device with 100%-prestrained composite was only within 0.9 °C, less than one-third of that with commercial thermal pad. Moreover, the composite revealed a superior impermeability for flexible seals. Our results illustrate that the composites could be an ideal candidate for the thermal management of emerging flexible electronics.