Technological watch

Thermal conductive coating materials with combination of mechanical robustness, good adhesion and electrical insulation are in high demand in the electronics industry. However, very few progresses have been achieved in constructing a highly thermal conductive composites coating that can conformably coat on desired subjects for efficient thermal dissipation, due to their lack of materials design and structure control. Herein, we report a bioinspired thermal conductive coating material from cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), boron nitride (BN), and polydopamine (PDA) by mimicking the layered structure of nacre. Owing to the strong interfacial strength, mechanical robustness, and high thermal conductivity of CNFs, they do not only enhance the exfoliation and dispersion of BN nanoplates, but also bridge BN nanoplates to achieve superior thermal and mechanical performance. The resulting composites coating exhibits a high thermal conductivity of 13.8 W/(m·K) that surpasses most of the reported thermal conductive composites coating owing to the formation of an efficient thermal conductive pathway in the layered structure. Additionally, the coating material has good interface adhesion to conformably wrap around various substrates by scalable spray coating, combined with good mechanical robustness, sustainability, electrical insulation, low-cost, and easy processability, which makes our materials attractive for electronic packaging applications.