Thermal conductivity of bulk boron nitride nanotube sheets and their epoxy‐impregnated composites

The thermal conductivity of bulk, self‐supporting boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) sheets composed of nominally 100% BNNTs oriented randomly in‐plane was measured by a steady‐state, parallel thermal conductance method. The sheets were either collected directly during synthesis or produced by dispersion and filtration. Differences between the effective thermal conductivities of filtration‐produced BNNT buckypaper (∼1.5 W m−1 K−1) and lower‐density as‐synthesized sheets (∼0.75 W m−1 K−1), which are both porous materials, were primarily due to their density. The measured results indicate similar thermal conductivity, in the range of 7–12 W m−1 K−1, for the BNNT network in these sheets. High BNNT‐content composites (∼30 wt.% BNNTs) produced by epoxy impregnation of the porous BNNT network gave 2–3 W m−1 K−1, more than 10× the baseline epoxy. The combination of manufacturability, thermal conductivity, and electrical insulation offers exciting potential for electrically insulating, thermally conductive coatings and packaging.

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