Coordinating of thermal and dielectric properties for cyanate ester composites filled with silica‐coated sulfonated graphene oxide hybrids

The cyanate ester (CE) resin is widely used for electrical and electronics packaging due to its excellent dielectric properties, high heat resistance and low water absorption. However, the low thermal conductivity limits its application in highly integrated circuits. In this work, cyanate ester (CE) based composites filled with silicon dioxide (SiO₂) coated sulfonated graphene oxide (SGO) were successfully prepared by sol‐gel process to coordinate its thermal conductivity and dielectric properties. The obtained composites showed enhanced thermal conductivity and maintained good insulating properties. It was found that the thermal conductivity of the composites increased with the loading of SiO₂@SGO hybrids and reached a maximum of 0.71 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ with 25 wt% fillers, 3.4 times higher than the baseline CE resin. This increase is attributed to the presence of SiO₂@SGO, which improved the phonon transmission channel in CE resin, and the surface modification on SGO also reduced interfacial thermal resistance between SiO₂@SGO and CE resin. The thermal stability of the composites has been improved from about 300°C to 390°C. Furthermore, the prepared SiO₂@SGO/CE composites exhibited excellent dielectric performance for electronics packaging applications. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:E1565–E1573, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers