Ultrahigh performance heat spreader based on gas-liquid exfoliation boron nitride nanosheets

Due to their high thermal conductivity and insulation performance, boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) have great promise to fabricate thermal management equipment for application in power electronics. The liquid-phase exfoliation route has been regarded as the most commonly used approach to produce single and few-layered BNNS for many research fields. However, this process takes a long time, and the production yield is extremely low. In this work, an efficient technique to obtain few-layered (mostly < 5 layers), high-yield (∼33%), and plane-defect-free BNNS by the combination of liquid N₂ (L-N₂) gasification and liquid exfoliation was developed. The as-obtained BNNS suspensions could be vacuum filtered to make a thermal conductive film named a BNNS heat spreader which possessed a superior thermal conductivity of 61.2 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ at room temperature. In addition, we also proved that the thermal conductivity of the BNNS heat spreader increased with the increase of density, creating an approach for fine tuning the thermal property of this heat spreader. (paper)