Comparative study on thermal and electrical transport properties of hexagonal boron nitride and reduced graphene oxide/epoxy nanocomposite by transient plane source techniques and impedance spectroscopy

Within the scope of the study, the thermal conductivity (TC) and thermal diffusivity (TD) of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and reduced graphene (r-GO)-based epoxy nanocomposites were investigated and compared. In addition, the dielectric properties and electrical conductivity of the two were also investigated. The heat transport phenomenon of h-BN/epoxy and r-GO/epoxy nanocomposites were investigated using the transient plane source (HOT DISK) technique at room temperature. The h-BN/epoxy nanocomposites exhibited a higher thermal transport than the r-GO/epoxy nanocomposites. A high TC of ~ 2.6 W/mK and a high TD of ~ 9 mm²/s were observed at a h-BN loading of 2 vol% in the nanocomposite. The TC and TD values were ~ 33% and ~ 119% higher than r-GO/epoxy nanocomposite. The relative dielectric permittivity \({(\varepsilon }_{r})\) and loss (δ) was observed to be higher for r-GO/epoxy nanocomposite when compared to h-BN/epoxy nanocomposites. High relative dielectric permittivity of ~ 7.5 and loss of ~ 0.07 was obtained at a r-GO loading of ~ 2.2 vol% in the nanocomposite. Further, both nanocomposites retained a high electrical resistance. The study indicates h-BN/epoxy nanocomposite to hold significant potential for heat management in electronic applications.