Synthesis and characterization of a contorted hexabenzocoronene epoxy toward high thermal stability and thermal conductivity

A contorted hexabenzocorone (HBC) mesogen based epoxy was synthesized and characterized for high thermal stability and thermal conductivity. Since HBC has a nano-graphene like structure, which would have strong pi-pi interactions, it was expected that HBC epoxy would have superior heat resistance and thermal conductivity. Based on this hypothesis, HBC containing four epoxy groups at edges was synthesized and confirmed by NMR and mass spectrum. HBC epoxy was cured with diaminophenolsulfone and their thermal stability and thermal conductivity were investigated. As expected, the decomposition of 5 wt% occurred at 323.44?, and thermal conductivity was 0.32 W/mK where the general thermal conductivity of epoxy resins is around 0.2 W/mK. Such enhancement of thermal properties would be explained by the formation of pi-pi stacking of HBC mesogens.