Advances in Liquid Crystal Epoxy: Molecular Structures, Thermal Conductivity, and Promising Applications in Thermal Management

Traditional heat conductive epoxy composites often fall short in meeting the escalating heat dissipation demands of large-power, high-frequency, and high-voltage insulating packaging applications, due to the challenge of achieving high thermal conductivity (k), desirable dielectric performance, and robust thermomechanical properties simultaneously. Liquid crystal epoxy (LCE) emerges as a unique epoxy, exhibiting inherently high k achieved through the self-assembly of mesogenic units into ordered structures. This characteristic enables liquid crystal epoxy to retain all the beneficial physical properties of pristine epoxy, while demonstrating a prominently enhanced k. As such, liquid crystal epoxy materials represent a promising solution for thermal management, with potential to tackle the critical issues and technical bottlenecks impeding the increasing miniaturization of microelectronic devices and electrical equipment. This article provides a comprehensive review on recent advances in liquid crystal epoxy, emphasizing the correlation between liquid crystal epoxy's microscopic arrangement, organized mesoscopic domain, k, and relevant physical properties. The impacts of LC units and curing agents on the development of ordered structure are discussed, alongside the consequent effects on the k, dielectric, thermal, and other properties. External processing factors such as temperature and pressure and their influence on the formation and organization of structured domains are also evaluated. Finally, potential applications that could benefit from the emergence of liquid crystal epoxy are reviewed.