Bioinspired, anisotropically highly thermoconductive silicon carbide/epoxy composite based on a nacre-mimetic architecture

Although nature’s wisdom resides in achieving an exceptional functionality, such as anisotropic properties by constructing intelligently hierarchical architectures, the preparation of bulk biomimetic materials is still a great challenge. Inspired from the transport behavior of ions and water through the directionally aligned channels in trees, we demonstrate a facile approach to construct an anisotropic 3D biomorphic silicon carbide (bio-SiC) framework in epoxy resin matrices. The novel epoxy composite with a nacre-mimetic architecture has a high thermal conductivity (TC) of 10.40 W m−1 K−1, an outstanding TC enhancement efficiency of 253 per 1 vol% filler at ∼ 22 vol% bio-SiC loading, together with a low coefficient of thermal expansion of 12.44 × 10−6 K−1 (∼17 vol%), an excellent thermal stability, a remarkable anti-flaming performance, and a high flexural strength of 188 ± 11 MPa (∼19 vol%). Our finding gives a promising insight to achieve anisotropically highly thermoconductive polymer-based thermal management materials.