Unique antimicrobial/thermally conductive polymer composites for use in medical electronic devices

• Published in: Journal of applied polymer science Vol. 138; no. 13
• Main Authors: Xiong, Si‐Wei, Zhang, Pan, Xia, Yu, Zou, Qian, Jiang, Meng‐ying, Gai, Jing‐Gang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 05-04-2021; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Antiinfectives and antibacterials; antimicrobial activities; antimicrobial‐functionalized hexagonal boron nitride nanoplatelets; Boron nitride; Boron-epoxy composites; Conducting polymers; Conduction heating; Conductive heat transfer; E coli; Electronic devices; low melt alloys; Materials science; Medical equipment; Medical materials; Polymer matrix composites; Polymers; Service life assessment; Thermal conductivity
• ISSN: 0021-8995; 1097-4628
• DOI: 10.1002/app.50113

The common neglect of the prominent bacterial growth and accumulation on polymer‐based thermal conductive materials used in medical electronic devices will hurt the functionality and lifetime of medical devices, and sometimes even lead to medical accidents. In this study, we developed a novel ternary composite with excellent antimicrobial and thermal conductive properties to solve this problem. This composite was composed of antimicrobial functionalized hexagonal boron nitride (AB@h‐BN) nanoplatelets, low melt alloys (LMAs), and epoxy. Antimicrobial testing showed that the AB@h‐BN/LMAs/epoxy composites were 100% against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus; their antibacterial mechanism was contact killing and was harmless to the environment. Besides enhancing the antimicrobial property, the AB@h‐BN nanoplatelets connected the mutually independent LMAs, forming the continuous network for heat conduction in the epoxy. Benefited from this distinctive structure, the thermal conductivity of AB@h‐BN/LMAs/epoxy can reach 2.66 Wm−1 k−1, which represented an enhancement of about 1141% over the pure epoxy.
We developed a novel ternary composite with excellent antimicrobial and thermal conductivity properties. This ternary composite consists of antibacterial functionalized h‐BN nanoplatelets, low melt alloys, and epoxy substrate. This ternary composite was 100% against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. This ternary composite can reach 2.66 Wm−1 K−1 and enhance 1141% than the pure epoxy in thermal conductivity.