POS7-1631
Delamination-Free Multifunctional Composites Enabled by Sugar-Templated Mechanical Interlocking as Thermal Interface Materials with EMI Shielding and Electrical Insulation
Topic
S7. Innovations in Polymeric Composites: From Design and Processing to Industrial Applications
When and Where
Sep 30, 2026
08:30 - 09:30
Room 301 (Grand Ballroom)
Session Chairs
Heesuk KIM
Jinhye BAE
Presenter(s)
Muhammad Yasir (Korea National University of Transportation, Korea)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Multifunctional thermal interface materials (TIMs) that simultaneously provide efficient heat dissipation, EMI shielding, electrical insulation, and long-term mechanical reliability are essential for flexible and high-power electronic systems. However, conventional multilayer composites frequently suffer from interfacial delamination under repeated mechanical deformation and thermal cycling, limiting their practical application. In this work, a scalable sugar-templating strategy combined with layer-by-layer casting and vacuum infiltration was employed to fabricate delamination-free sandwich-structured boron nitride (BN)/graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites. The sugar template generated interconnected porous structures within the interfaces of each layer. During vacuum infiltration, PDMS penetrated the pore networks and solidified across the layer interfaces, producing a mechanical interlocking architecture without requiring surface functionalization, adhesives, or hot-pressing treatments. The optimized mechanically interlocked composite, M-BN25/GNP30, achieved a high EMI shielding effectiveness, a through-plane thermal conductivity, and outstanding volume resistivity. Compared with the corresponding non-mechanically interlocked (NMIL) composite, the mechanically interlocked (MIL) structure exhibited approximately 21.43% higher EMI shielding effectiveness, 46.67% higher thermal conductivity, and 45.01% greater interfacial shear strength. Furthermore, the composite maintained its structural integrity and multifunctional performance after 10,000 bending cycles and 1,000 thermal cycles between -20 and 120 °C, without observable interfacial delamination. These findings demonstrate that the MIL composite offers a scalable and industrially relevant processing route for manufacturing durable multifunctional TIMs for flexible electronics and high-power electronic packaging. *This work was supported by Korea National University of Transportation in 2026.
