Dual regulation of thermal conductivity and mechanical performance of nano cellulose-based composite via mimicking plant cell wall structure

Combining thermal conductive fillers and flexible polymers is an agile approach to fabricating composites with heat-conducting performance. However, the thermal conductivity of the composites is hard to reach an equal level to the functional fillers. The mainspring is that the thermally conductive pathways within the composite could not be well-constructed due to the air-induced interface thermal resistance. Herein, inspired by the plant cell wall structure, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with abundant hydroxyl groups was adopted as a binder for boosting the thermally conductive pathways construction between cellulose nanofiber (CNF) and alkalized hexagonal boron nitride (BN-OH), also for strengthening the mechanical performance of the composite. The results showed that the tensile strength and through-plane thermal conductivity of the composite were high up to 91.0 MPa and 2.2 W m−1 K−1 at 40 wt% PVA content, exhibiting 121 % and 450 % enhancements compared to pure CNF film (41.2 MPa and 0.4 W m−1 K−1). Moreover, the composite also presented high thermal stability (decomposition temperature of onset was 218 °C) and good hydrophobicity properties. Overall, this study innovatively proposes an idea for enhancing the thermal conductivity and improving the mechanical properties of the composite, which is indispensable for developing thermal management materials for next-generation electronics. •A novel thermally conductive film with plant cell wall structure was prepared.•The biomimetic structure provided abundant thermally conductive pathways.•The through-plane thermal conductivity of the composite was high up to 2.2 W m−1 K−1.•The bionic structure endowed the film with good mechanical properties of 91.0 MPa.