Lightweight and thermally conductive thermoplastic polyurethane/hollow glass bead/boron nitride composites with flame retardancy

Polymeric composites with low density and high thermal conductivity (TC) are greatly demanded in some specific applications such as aeronautics, astronautics, and deep-sea exploration. It is a great challenge to obtain lightweight and thermally conductive polymer composites because the heat fillers have high density (>2 g/cm³) Herein, lightweight and thermally conductive thermoplastic polyurethane/hollow glass bead/boron nitride composites (TPU/HGB/BN) were prepared with the construction of a 3D BN network under the assistance of ultralightweight HGB by a solution-mixing and hot-pressing method. A 3D BN heat network has been constructed in the TPU matrix due to the alignment of the BN platelets along with the HGB microspheres during hot-pressing, which leads to a higher TC (5.34 W/mK) of the TPU/HGB/BN composites with a low density of 1.23 g/cm³, which is close to the density of pure TPU (1.20 g/cm³). In addition, the TPU/HGB/BN composites show good thermal stability with TC losses of 4.24% and 2.22%, respectively, even after treated for 50 hot-cold cycles and heated at 80 °C for 50 h. Moreover, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) of the TPU/HGB/BN composites is 51%, and they can extinguish in 8 s after ignition and exhibit enhanced flame retardancy. This work presents a simple method to design and prepare lightweight, flame retardant and thermally conductive composite materials, which can be used as lightweight thermal management materials.