Hexagonal boron nitride (BN), is a synthetic material with high thermal conductivity, but low electrical conductivity. Like the more famous graphite, BN consist of layers of individual sheets, stacked to form flakes or particles. In the work presented here, we describe our investigations aimed at exfoliating and assembling these individual sheets to form inexpensive flame resistant composite materials with very low loadings of BN. In order to take advantage of the remarkable properties of hBN in composites, we introduce an entirely new approach to incorporate exfoliated hBN sheets into a polymer matrix and show how the mechanism of interfacial trapping leads to the surfactant-like behaviour of these two dimensional materials. Using the hBN as a surfactant, followed by polymerization of the continuous oil (styrene) phase yields a polymer matrix with exfoliated BN creating a continuous network throughout the composite.<br/>

Self-assembled hexagonal boron nitride as a 3D polymerization scaffold

255th National Meeting (2018)

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