Electrically insulating composite with improved thermal conductivity for rotating machines

During these years it’s been complicated to find a way for decreasing the pollution on our planet.It’s an open discussion in many contexts: politics and scientific research are considering important steps to be taken to arrive to a final and right solution. An alternative solution could be increasing electrical solutions so increase electrical power in machines (taking into losses). In fact, there are many fields where we can improve the use of electrical power, especially for decarbonize the transport. In this background, finds a place the topic of my internship in LAPLACE’s laboratory in cooperation with IRT Saint Exupéry from where it comes from. The IRT launched a “challenge”, studying a material which can increase the thermal conductivity, so the electrical power, but at the same time it should be an insulation material. The key goals to develop interesting new materials are: first, high thermal conductivity, then obviously also high thermal resistance, low coefficient of thermal expansion, high breakdown strength, low dielectric constant. The aim of my internship was in fact, research an insulating material whit thermal conductivity close to 1 W/Km, remembering the disadvantage about the escalation of power dissipation and significant heat fluxes within a device. In these last years indeed, there is a high demand for the development of novel heat-releasing package materials. My work consists of observing the behavior of an interesting material: Epoxy with fillers for achieving a homogenous composite made up with fillers (I used during my research Boron Nitride’microparticles) and epoxy. So, this homogenous composite is with surface modification of fillers in composite remarkable properties: large surface area, low density, potential application. During my thesis’s work I tested this interesting material for knowing and understanding its parameters and for arriving to the target of this work: the value of thermal conductivity.