Enhanced thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of hybrid MoS2/h-BN polyurethane nanocomposites

Nanocomposites based on molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and hybrid MoS2/h-BN nanofillers with different wt % in elastomeric polyurethane (PU) were studied with respect to their microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties. Tensile tests showed increases up to 80% in Young`s modulus for both h-BN and hybrid MoS2/h-BN composites. These results agree with dynamic mechanical analysis tests, which confirm an increase of up to 106% in storage modulus for hybrid MoS2/h-BN with 0.5 wt % content. When the hybrid MoS2/h-BN nanofillers were incorporated into the polymeric matrix, increases up to 102% in crosslink density were observed, indicating that strong interactions between the hybrid nanofillers and PU were established. However, the most important synergistic effect between the mixture of MoS2 and h-BN nanoadditives was the increase of up to 752% in thermal conductivity with respect to neat polymer. Therefore, hybrid composites based in two-dimensional MoS2/h-BN nanofillers with multifunctional attributes can be applied in advanced polymeric materials that require high mechanical and thermal performance. (c) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46560.