'White graphene' takes heat from small electronics

Rice researchers Rouzbeh Shahsavari and Navid Sakhavand have completed the first theoretical analysis of how 3D boron nitride might be used as a tuneable material to control heat flow in such devices. Their work appears in Applied Materials and Interfaces.

In its two-dimensional form, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) - aka white graphene - looks like graphene, which is an excellent conductor of electricity.

As an insulator, h-BN does not share this property but commonality can be found in both materials’ being good conductors of heat, which can be quantified in the form of phonons.

Using boron nitride to control heat flow seemed worthy of a closer look, Shahsavari said in a statement.

“Typically in all electronics, it is highly desired to get heat out of the system as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said. “One of the drawbacks in electronics, especially when you have layered materials on a substrate, is that heat moves very quickly in one direction, along a conductive plane, but not so good from layer to layer. Multiple stacked graphene layers is a good example of this.”