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Abstract
Recently, increase in production of heat sinks in electronics with instinct structure is of high demand in the market. This has led to replacement of traditional heat sink materials with nano-composite due to high expense in production and damage risk in electronic packaging. Nanotechnology has paved ways for good processing, characterization and applications in various industries. This research is focused on fabricating thermoplastic polymer composite material using boron nitride nanotubes as the filler for increased thermal conductivity. The nano-composites were obtained by addition of nanoscale particles in a polystyrene polymer matrix, at different weight percentages with dimethylformamide (DMF) by means of solvent and sonication methods to achieve unique properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were employed to characterize and analyze the samples. The glass transition temperature and heat flow were obtained using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Laser flash analyzer (LFA) was used to determine the thermal properties from 3D printed heatsink samples. The highest thermal conductivity at 0.382W/mk was recorded solvent method at 10wt% PS-BNNTs with presence of BNNTs encapsulated in the composite. An Infrared thermal camera was used to capture the heat distribution in the 3D printed heat sink at 60-70?. Increase in thermal property of the PS-BNNTs will lead to high advantage of thermoplastic heat sink in electronic applications.
