Enhanced Thermal Conductivity of Epoxy Composites Filled with 2D Transition Metal Carbides (MXenes) with Ultralow Loading

With the development of electronic devices such as integrated circuits toward the continual increase in power density and consumption, the efficient heat dissipation and low thermal expansion of materials become one of the most important issue. However, conventional polymers have the problem of poor thermal dissipation performance, which hinder application for electronic devices. In this work, the two-dimensional material, MXene (Ti(3)C(2)), is used as the reinforcement additive to optimize the thermal properties of polymers. We reported the preparation of multilayer Ti(3)C(2) MXene by HF etching method and obtained few-layer Ti(3)C(2) MXene by simple ultrasonication. Meanwhile, Ti(3)C(2)/epoxy composites were prepared by a solution blending method. The results show that the thermal properties of the composites are improved in comparison with the neat epoxy. Thermal conductivity value (0.587 W/mK) of epoxy composite with only 1.0 wt% Ti(3)C(2) MXene fillers, is increased by 141.3% compared with that of neat epoxy. In addition, the composite presents an increased glass transition temperature, high thermal stability and lower coefficient of thermal expansion. This work is of great significance for the research of high-performance composite materials.