A novel environmentally friendly boron nitride/lignosulfonate/natural rubber composite with improved thermal conductivity

Polymer-based thermal management materials have drawn much attention in the last few years because of the increasing heat dissipation challenges of advanced modern electronics. However, conventional high thermal conductivity polymer composites often sacrifice mechanical properties due to the high filler content, restricting the further development of devices. Thus, combining comprehensive superior performances remains an important issue. Herein, novel environmentally friendly BN/lignosulfonate/NR composites were synthesized and showed an improved through-plane thermal conductivity of 1.17 W m−1 K−1. Meanwhile, the mechanical, conductivity and heat dissipation properties were also investigated in detail. The experimental results fully proved that BN/lignosulfonate/NR composites after a carbonization process showed great potential for applications in thermal management materials.