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Thermally conductive thermosets are greatly relevant for improving heat dissipation in advanced electronics. Although the thermal conductivities of organic materials, which are largely heat insulators, cannot be readily improved, a liquid crystal moiety can efficiently improve these properties via its self-assembling nature. Here, we report the syntheses of a series of bifunctional liquid crystal epoxy resins (LCERs) containing double mesogenic structures that are connected by aliphatic spacers to enhance their self-assembling properties. Phenyl benzoate derivatives are utilized as mesogens, and the series is chemically well-characterized. Although all the monomers exhibit clear mesomorphic properties in a wide temperature range (115–210 °C), as revealed by differential scanning calorimetry and polarized optical microscopy investigations, a slight difference is observed based on the length of the spacer. Cured LCERs are prepared by hot compression molding utilizing 4,4′-diaminodiphenylmethane, which is a suitable curing agent for the liquid crystal (LC) phases. They exhibit a glass transition temperature (Tg) of ∼100 °C with a high decomposition temperature of ∼350 °C. Interestingly, owing to the enhanced LC interaction, the maximum thermal conductivity attained is 0.45 W/m·K, which is remarkably high.
Olamilekan et al. (Mon,) studied this question.