Cotton Candy-Templated Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Ceramic Pathway within Polymer Composite for Enhanced Thermal Conductivity

With the minimization and higher power of electronic devices, materials with effective heat dissipation and high electrical insulation have attracted relentless interest. Especially, highly thermally conductive, highly electrically insulating but low filler content of polymer-based composites are desirable. Herein, a facile and eco-friendly cotton candy-templated method (CTM) to construct three-dimensional heat transport pathways inside epoxy resin is reported. The fabricated Al₂O₃/epoxy composites with enhanced heat transport capability feature a 15-fold increase in thermal conductivity at a filler content of 36.2 vol % compared to pristine epoxy. Moreover, the remarkable thermal conductive property has excellent stability over a wide range of temperature before and after heating and cooling cycles. Meanwhile, the CTM composite still retain highly electrical insulation. The cotton candy-templated method proposed in this work is a new avenue for the preparation of three-dimensional heat transport pathways within polymer-based composites for microelectronic packaging and electrical engineering systems.