Enhanced thermal conductivity of epoxy acrylate/h-BN and AlN composites by photo-curing 3D printing technology

Filling hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a hot topic in the research of improving the thermal conductivity of polymer composites. Conversely, its difficulty in dispersing and forming a three-dimensional thermal network has become a major problem. This article uses liquid resin can effectively help the filler to be evenly dispersed and construct a multi-layer connection network through 3D printing technology, which improves the thermal conductivity of polymer effectively. With the addition of 30 wt% h-BN, the thermal conductivity of the epoxy acrylate (EA) composite reaches 1.60 Wm⁻¹ K⁻¹, which is 6.8 times that of pure epoxy acrylic resin. Our work provides a new idea for improving the thermal conductivity of photocured polymers.