Efficient and simple exfoliation and functionalization techniques of h-BN for enhancing thermal management in electronics

The rapid development of AI technology underscores thermal management challenges in new electronic devices. Boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) have potential in electronic packaging due to their excellent thermal stability and conductivity, but face issues like low production efficiency and poor substrate dispersion. Hence, this paper proposes an efficient and simple method for functionalizing BNNS using a plasma-assisted ball milling technique with amino (-NH2) and hydroxyl (-OH) groups as functional groups, aiming to enhance yield and improve dispersion in the matrix. Functionalized BNNSs achieve an average yield of about 50% after ball milling and decontamination and show good dispersion stability with zeta potentials around-30 mV. Meanwhile, the optimal thermal conductivities of NH2-BNNS and HO-BNNS in the water-glycol system are 0.86 W center dot(m center dot K)-1 and 1.02 W center dot (m center dot K)-1 at an addition content of 0.12 wt%, respectively, which are 1.65 and 1.96 times higher than that of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Particularly, both retain higher thermal conductivity (TC) than h-BN after 6 days of placement, demonstrating their superior ability to enhance the TC of the base fluid. Thereafter, the maximum temperature of the CPU equipped with functionalized BNNSs consistently remain below 35 degrees C during 60 minutes of operation. This represents approximately a 34% reduction in CPU temperature compared to without the thermally conductive fluid. These findings provide new solutions for the efficient production of f-BNNSs and their practical applications in heat transfer.