Thermochimica Acta 590 (2014) 138144

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Thermochimica Acta
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tca

Thermal conductivity of polymer composites with oriented boron

nitride$
Hong Jun Ahn a , Young Jun Eoh a , Sung Dae Park b , Eung Soo Kim a, *
a
b

Department of Materials Engineering, Kyonggi University, Suwon, South Korea

Electronic Materials & Device Research Center, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Seongnam, South Korea

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history:
Received 25 January 2014
Received in revised form 21 June 2014
Accepted 26 June 2014
Available online 28 June 2014

Thermal conductivity of boron nitride (BN) with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and/or polyvinyl butyral (PVB)
was investigated as a function of the degree of BN orientation, the numbers of hydroxyl groups in the
polymer matrices and the amphiphilic agents used. The composites with in-plane orientation of BN
showed a higher thermal conductivity than the composites with out-of-plane orientation of BN due to
the increase of thermal pathway. For a given BN content, the composites with in-plane orientation of BN/
PVA showed higher thermal conductivity than the composites with in-plane orientation of BN/PVB. This
result could be attributed to the improved degree of orientation of BN, caused by a larger number of
hydroxyl groups being present. Those treated with C14H6O8 amphiphilic agent demonstrated a higher
thermal conductivity than those treated by C27H27N3O2. The measured thermal conductivity of the
composites was compared with that predicted by the several theoretical models.
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Thermal conductivity
Orientation of boron nitride
Polymer composite
Amphiphilic agent

1. Introduction
With a high integration of various components in electronic
devices, heat dissipation becomes critical not only to maintain the
life span of the device, but also to its performance and reliability.
Ceramic/polymer composites have therefore been in particularly
high from the electronics industry, in order to develop composites
with a high degree of thermal conductivity. Numerous investigations have previously been conducted into improving the
thermal conductivity of ceramic/polymer composites, including
the following: the addition of ceramics with a high thermal
conductivity, varying the orientation of anisotropic ceramics and
changing the ceramic/polymer interface [13]. Furthermore,
several types of numerical models have also been suggested to
predict the thermal conductivity of composites, and to discover
potential new composites more effectively [47].
Although the hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is widely used in
ceramic/polymer composites due to its higher thermal conductivity, the thermal conductivity of the composite strongly depends on
the anisotropy of platelet BN which changes its thermal

$
Presented at The 10th Asia Thermophysical Properties Conference, Jeju, Korea,
September 29October 3, 2013
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: eskim@kyonggi.ac.kr (E.S. Kim).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2014.06.029
0040-6031/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

conductivity. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of the BN/

polymer composite should be studied as a function of the
orientation of BN to the heat ows.
On the other hand, in order to develop ceramic/polymer
composites with a high thermal conductivity that are suitable for a
variety of applications, the interfacial behaviour between ceramics
and polymers needs to be controlled based on a fundamental
understanding of the factors affecting it. The difference in surface
properties between hydrophobic ceramics and hydrophilic polymers is particularly important, and it is expected that these
properties could be controlled by the use of amphiphilic agents.
Generally, an amphiphilic agent is composed of two groups; one is
hydrophobic groups worked for hydrophobic ceramics, the other is
hydrophilic groups worked for hydrophilic polymer. The interfacial
behaviour between ceramics and polymers could be improved due
to these two groups of amphiphlic agents.
From a preliminary study, the thermal conductivity of a boron
nitride (BN) composite treated with the amphiphilic agent
C27H27N3O2 was found to be higher than that of pristine BN. This
result agrees with a report on BN nanotubes treated by catechin,
which showed an improved thermal conductivity over pure BN
nanotubes [8]. However, it is still unclear whether the thermal
conductivity of BN/polymer composites was affected by the
number of hydroxyl groups of amphiphilic agent or not.
In this study, the thermal conductivities of BN/polymer
composites were investigated as a function of the degree of

H.J. Ahn et al. / Thermochimica Acta 590 (2014) 138144

orientation of BN, and the types of amphiphilic agents with

different number of hydroxyl groups. Two polyvinyl matrix
materials were selected with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) having a
larger number of hydroxyl groups than polyvinyl butyral (PVB). The
amphiphilic treatment agents C27H27N3O and C14H6O8 have the
same number of aromatic rings, yet the number of hydroxyl groups
in C14H6O8 is four times greater than in C27H27N3O2. It is thought
that the aromatic rings of amphiphilic agent promote strong pp
interactions with the BN surface [8]. Also, hydroxyl groups of
amphiphilic agent promote hydrogen bonding with polymer
matrix. Fig. 1 illustrates the mechanism scheme of interaction
between BN treated amphiphilic agent and polymer matrix. The
several different thermal conductivity models were examined for
predicting the thermal conductivity of a polymer composite with
oriented BN was also discussed.
2. Experimental procedure
Starting materials were 8-mm-sized boron nitride (BN, DENKA,
Japan) particles as ceramic ller, and polyvinyl butyral (PVB,
BM2L380, CS Technology, Korea) or polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, Kuraray
Poval, Kuraray Co., Ltd., Japan) as the polymer matrices; 2-(4,6diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-5-[(hexyl)oxy]-phenol (C27H27N3O2,
SigmaAldrich, USA) and ellagic acid hydrate (C14H6O8
xH2O,
SigmaAldrich, UK) were used for the amphiphilic agents. To
prepare the amphiphilic-agent-treated BN, the volume fraction of
the C27H27N3O2 and C14H6O8 to the BN was determined to 0.16 and
0.10 Vf, respectively due to the difference of densities with
amphiphilic agent type. C27H27N3O2 and C14H6O8
xH2O were
stirred with 8-mm-sized BN powders in toluene and dimethyl
sulfoxide (DMSO), respectively, for 6 h at 150  C in concentration of
20 wt.%. The treated BN powders were ltered through a suction
ask by three times ethanol washing, with the remaining powder
then dried at 80  C for 24 h.
To produce BN/PVB composites, liquid PVB and amphiphilicagent-treated BN powder were mixed by magnetic stirring for 4 h
at room temperature. For BN/PVA composites, amphiphilic-agenttreated BN powder was dispersed in a 10 wt.% PVA aqueous
solution, which was then mixed by magnetic stirring at 80  C for
5 h, and then dried. The mixed BN/polymer slurries were de-aired
in a vacuum chamber, and the viscosity of slurry was adjusted to
2000 mPa s. To obtain composites lled with oriented ceramic

139

particles, the de-aired slurry was poured into a tape-casting

machine and then laminated to a height of 5 mm at 65  C under the
pressure of 5 MPa. The signicant orientation is expected in tape
casting, where a strong eld of shear stress is presented
particularly at the boundary of the blade of the carrier sheet
and vicinity. This laminated sheet was hot-pressed at 90  C under
10 MPa. For the preparation of composite with a specic
orientation, the laminated bulks, 5  5  5 mm3, were rst
produced by cutting, and then the specimens with 5  5  1 mm3
were cut from these laminated bulks. The laminated bulks of BN
platelets which were perpendicular (out-of-plane orientation) to
the thermal path, were used to measure the thermal diffusivity of
the BN/polymer composites with out-of-plane orientation. For the
thermal diffusivity of the composites with in-plane orientation,
the laminate bulks were rotated 90 and nally BN platelet were
aligned parallel (in-plane orientation) to the thermal path.
X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD, Model D/Max-3C, Rigaku,
Japan) was used to determine the degree of orientation (D) for
BN ceramics in polymer composites by comparing the relative
intensity of the (1 0 0) peak, to the sum of the (1 0 0) and (0 0 2)
peaks. (D = I(100)/(I(100) + I(002))  100%) Orientation of the platelet
BN in composites was also observed using a scanning electron
microscope (SEM, Model JSM-7500F, Jeol, Japan).
The density of the specimens was measured by a gas
pycnometer (GP, Model AccuPyc1330, Micromeritics, USA).
The volume fraction (Vf) was calculated using Eq. (1):
Vf

W f =rf
W f =rf W m =rm

(1)

where, Vf, Wf, Wm, rf, and rm are the volume fraction of the ller,
and the weight of the ller, and the matrix, and the density of the
ller, and the matrix, respectively.
The BN composites treated by amphiphilic agents were
investigated by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR),
using a Bruker IFS-66/S spectrometer (Bruker UK Ltd., Convetry,
UK) in the 4000400 cm1 range. Thermogavimetric analysis was
performed using a NETZSCH STA 409 PC/PG (STA 409 PC/PG,
Netzsch, Germany) instrument from room temperature to 1000  C
at a heating rate of 10  C/min under air atmosphere.
The thermal diffusivity of composites with orientated BN was
measured by a non-contact laser ash method (Model LFA-447,
Netzsch, Germany) [9], with the laser pulse directed through the

Fig. 1. Scheme of interaction between BN treated amphiphilic agent and polymer matrices.

140

H.J. Ahn et al. / Thermochimica Acta 590 (2014) 138144

oriented specimens in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions.

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC, Model EXSTAR-6000,
Seiko, Japan) was used to obtain the specic heat capacity of
composites at room temperature.
Thermal conductivity was obtained from the results of the
density, thermal diffusivity and the specic heat capacity
measurements of the composite.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Physical properties of BN/polymer composites
The orientation of BN in the polymer matrices was estimated
from XRD patterns of the composites, as shown in Fig. 2. The peaks
at 2u = 26.90 and 41.72 are related to diffraction of the (0 0 2) and
(1 0 0) planes of BN, respectively. For the BN/polymer composites
with a 0.5 Vf of BN, the intensity of the (0 0 2) peak for out-of-plane
oriented BN/polymer composites is stronger than that of (1 0 0) as
the BN particles are almost fully dispersed parallel to the surface of
the composite. Conversely, the (1 0 0) peak of the in-plane
orientated BN/polymer composite has a stronger intensity than
with out-of-plane orientated specimens, due to the dispersion of
BN platelet edges on the surface of the composites.
Fig. 3 demonstrates the degree of orientation of BN/polymer
composites with various Vf values of BN. The degree of orientation
is highest for BN/PVA composites across the entire BN content
range due to their higher number of hydroxyl groups. PVA contains
8090% hydroxyl groups in its chemical formula, while PVB
contains just 20%; so, the hydrogen bonding of BN/PVA composites
is stronger [10,11]. For the BN/polymer composite with 0.5 Vf BN,
the amphiphilic-agent-treated BN/polymer composites showed a
higher degree of orientation than that of non-treated composites.
This result could be attributed to the dispersion of BN and the
density of the composite affected by the types of amphiphilic
agents, which was due to the number of hydroxyl group of
amphiphilic agents. With an increase in BN content, the degree of
orientation increases to a maximum at 0.4 Vf, and then decreases.
This is attributed to a decrease in interfacial adhesion, resulting
from an increase in voids at the polymer/ceramic interface due to
excessive amounts of BN present in the polymer matrix [12], as
conrmed by Fig. 5(e) and (f).

Fig. 2. X-ray diffraction patterns of 0.5 Vf BN/polymer composites with orientation

of BN.

Fig. 3. Degree of orientation of BN/polymer composites with various volume

fractions (Vf) of BN.

Fig. 4 shows TGA results of green sheet of BN/PVB and the

composites after hot-pressing. Compared to the composite with
0.3 Vf BN, the composite with 0.5 Vf BN was higher thermal stability
due to the higher thermal resistance of BN ller. With increasing in
the temperature up to 500  C, the weight loss of the specimens was
rapidly increased due to the decomposition of polymer, while it is
hard to observe the difference of TGA curves between green sheet
and hot-pressed composite through all of the specimens. TGA of
the BN/PVA composites also showed similar tendencies with
increasing temperature.
SEM micrographs of the composites prepared are shown in Fig. 5.
From this, it can be seen that the ceramic particles are properly
oriented in the PVB and PVA matrices prepared by the tape casting
and laminating method. Obviously, tape-casting can provide
sufcient shear force to make the BN particles orientate towards
the blade direction, which is also conrmed by Fig. 5(a) and (b).
Compared to BN/PVA composites, BN/PVB composites exhibit
aggregation of the BN particles and a rough surface texture, as
shown in Fig. 5(c) and (d). This result is agreed with degree of

Fig. 4. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) curves of the composites with different

experimental process and polymer matrix.

H.J. Ahn et al. / Thermochimica Acta 590 (2014) 138144

141

Fig. 5. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of composites with 0.3 Vf BN/PVA (a), and BN/PVB (b) with in-plane orientation, 0.3 Vf of BN/PVA (c), and BN/PVB (d),
and 0.5 Vf of C27H27N3O2-treated BN/PVB (e), and C14H6O8-treated BN/PVB (f) with out-of-plane orientation (scale bar = 10 mm).

orientation of BN. In Fig. 5(e) and (f), the composites with BN treated
by C14H6O8 exhibit a at microstructure in a out-of-plane orientation, whilst needle shape particles were detected in the case of the
composite with BN treated by C27H27N3O2. These needle shape
particles may be chemical compounds related to the polymer and
C27H27N3O2, which warrants more detailed investigation.
As conrmed by FT-IR analysis (Fig. 6), pristine BN exhibits
characteristic absorption bands at B
N (1363 cm1) and
BN
B (817 cm1), which indicated the in-plane and transverse vibrations, respectively [13]. Slightly increasing of O
H
(3500 cm1) intensity was observed in the spectra of amphiphilic-agent-treated BN, which could be attributed to the hydroxyl
groups of amphiphilic-agent on BN surface [14]. Also, it was
conrmed that the treatment of C27H27N3O2 was successfully
achieved through the slightly movement of peak at 1000
1100 cm1 due to the CN (1120 cm1) of C27H27N3O2 [15].
Table 1 shows the effect of the BN volume fraction on the
density, specic heat capacity and thermal diffusivity of the
specimens with different orientations. The density of the
composite increased with an increase in BN content from 0.1 to
0.5 volume fraction (Vf), due to the higher density of BN. For those
composites with identical BN Vf, the BN/PVA composite showed a
higher density due to the higher density of PVA (1.28 g/cm3)

Fig. 6. Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of pristine BN and amphiphilicagent-treated BN.

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H.J. Ahn et al. / Thermochimica Acta 590 (2014) 138144

Table 1
Density, specic heat capacity and thermal diffusivity of BN/polymers composites with various volume fractions (Vf).
Composites
Polymer

Amphiphilic agent

Volume fraction

Density
(g/cm3)

Relative density
(%)

Specic heat capacity (J/gK)

Thermal diffusivity (mm2/s)

(in plane) (out-of-plane)

Polyvinyl
butyral
(PVB)

Pristine BN

0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.5

1.215
1.341
1.465
1.587
1.679
1.684
1.682

97.2
97.8
98.3
98.6
97.1
97.3
97.2

1.759
1.511
1.362
1.159
1.128
1.112
1.090

0.701
1.044
2.455
4.776
5.672
6.257
6.015

0.130
0.163
0.375
0.648
0.729
0.910
0.545

0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.5

1.341
1.443
1.550
1.671
1.756
1.765
1.760

96.7
96.8
97.1
98.2
97.2
97.7
97.5

1.870
1.651
1.489
1.331
1.293
1.250
1.280

0.901
1.350
2.482
4.961
5.890
6.452
6.201

0.211
0.320
0.490
0.768
0.849
1.010
0.802

C14H6O8
C27H27N3O2
Polyvinyl
alcohol
(PVA)

Pristine BN

C14H6O8
C27H27N3O2

compared to PVB (1.05 g/cm3) [12,16], indicating that a higher

content of PVA can be composited with BN for a given Vf. The
theoretical density (rt) of the composites was calculated by Eq. (2):

rt 1  V f rm V f rf

(2)

where rt, rm, rf, and Vf are the densities of the composites, matrix,
and ller and the volume fraction of the ller, respectively. With
increasing BN content, the relative density (experimental density/
theoretical density) increased up to 0.4 Vf and then decreased. This
is attributed to decrease of interfacial adhesion, resulting from an
increase in voids (dotted circle in Fig. 5) at the ceramic/polymer
interface as conrmed by Fig. 5(e) and (f). For the BN/polymer
composite with 0.5 Vf BN, the amphiphilic-agent-treated BN/
polymer composites showed a higher degree of orientation than
that of non-treated composites. This result could be attributed to
the dispersion of BN and the density of the composite affected by
the types of amphiphilic agents, which was due to the number of
hydroxyl group of amphiphilic agents. With increase of BN content,
the thermal diffusivity of composites increased while the specic
heat capacity of the composites decreased due to the intrinsic
properties of individual components. The thermal diffusivity
strongly depended on the orientation of BN rather than the Vf of
BN. The in-plane orientation showed higher thermal diffusivity
than out-of-plane orientation due to the formation of thermal
pathways resulting from the geometric factor of platelet BN
particle. Also, the thermal diffusivity was enhanced by the
amphiphilic agent treatment of BN. The composite with BN/PVA
has a higher thermal diffusivity than that with BN/PVB. This result
could be attributed to the higher degree of orientation and
interface adhesion.

higher thermal conductivity than that with out-of-plane oriented

BN, which is in agreement with the thermal diffusivity of the
composite. This result could be attributed to the texturing of
platelet BN, which favours the formation of in-plane thermal
conductive pathways.
For the 0.5 Vf composites with in-plane oriented BN, the
thermal conductivity with C14H6O8 treatment was higher than
with C27H27N3O2. Although both amphiphilic agents have the same
number of aromatic rings, C14H6O8 has four hydroxyl groups per
molecule compared to just one with C27H27N3O2, indicating that
the interfacial adhesion between C14H6O8 and the polymer is
stronger. The subsequent increase in hydrogen bonding between
BN and the polymer matrix improves the degree of orientation of
BN and decreases the thermal contact resistance, which enhances
the heat transfer efciency. As conrmed in Fig. 5(e), the needle
shape particles were adhered to the PVB matrix. Compared to the
composites with BN treated by C14H6O8, the composites with BN
treated by C27H27N3O2 showed rough surface with adhesion of
needle shape particles. Therefore, the out-of-plane thermal
conductivities of the composites with C27H27N3O2 treatment
was lower than those with C14H6O8 treatment.
For the composite with a 0.5 Vf of out-of-plane oriented BN, the
thermal conductivity shows variation depending on the type of

3.2. Thermal properties of BN/polymer composites

The in-plane orientated BN/polymer composites demonstrated
a higher thermal diffusivity than those with a out-of-plane
orientation, owing to the formation of thermal pathways resulting
from the geometric factor of platelet BN. For composites with
identical Vf values of pristine BN, the higher degree of orientation
and interface adhesion of BN/PVA composites gives them a higher
specic heat capacity and thermal diffusivity than BN/PVB
composites. Compared to composites with pristine BN, the thermal
diffusivity of all composites with amphiphilic-agent-treated BN
was higher, even though the specic heat was similar.
The thermal conductivity of the various composites prepared is
shown in Fig. 7. The composite with in-plane oriented BN has a

Fig. 7. Thermal conductivity of BN/polymer composites with various volume

fractions (Vf) and orientations of BN.

H.J. Ahn et al. / Thermochimica Acta 590 (2014) 138144

amphiphilic agent used. The composite with BN treated by C14H6O8

shows an improvement in thermal conductivity, whilst the
composite with BN treated by C27H27N3O2 shows a reduction.
This is likely to be attributable to the difference in the
microstructural characteristics. As shown in Fig. 5(e) and (f), the
composite with C14H6O8-treated BN has a homogeneous microstructure with out-of-plane orientation, whilst needle shaped
particles were detected in the composite containing C27H27N3O2treated BN that would negatively affect the out-of-plane heat
transfer. For the composites with in-plane oriented BN the needle
shaped particles are interconnected, thus providing a thermal
pathway and increasing the thermal conductivity of the composite.
3.3. Comparison of experimental and theoretical thermal conductivity
There are several factors inuencing the heat transfer of
composites such as ller aspect ratio, ller particle shape, ller
volume fraction, interfacial thermal resistance, ller dispersion
and so on [17]. Thus, as shown in Fig. 8, several theoretical models
were applied in order to evaluate the thermal conductivity of BN/
polymer composites, including the Bruggeman, Nielsen, Agari &
Uno and HattaTaya equations [1820].
For the BN/PVA composites with in-plane oriented BN, the
HattaTaya equation shows good agreement with the experimental thermal conductivity of BN/PVB and BN/PVA composites. This
result could be attributed to the fact that the HattaTaya equation
takes into account the orientation of platelet-shaped llers. The
HattaTaya equation is expressed as Eq. (3):
V f K f  K m K m
pT
; Sc
; Sa Sb
K eff K m
4D
K

K
1

V
S

K
m
m
i
f
f
 
pT
1
2D

(3)

where Keff, Kf and Km are the effective thermal conductivity of the

composites, ceramic llers (BN: 200) and polymer matrix (PVB:
0.236; PVA: 0.2), respectively, and a, b, and c subscripts in Sa, Sb
(Sa = Sb = 0.0157), and Sc (0.9686) represent factors dependent on
the ller shape and direction. For platelet llers, D and T are the
diameter and thickness of the platelets, respectively. This model
assumes that the platelets are completely aligned either parallel or
perpendicular to the surface of a specimen. Due to the improved
degree of orientation by the tape casting process, the experimental

143

thermal conductivity was in good overall agreement with the

theoretical value at low BN contents which varied slightly
depending on the type of polymer (0.2 Vf for PVB, 0.3 Vf for
PVA). With further increase in the BN content, the thermal
conductivity of the composites was higher than that of the
predicted data. This could be attributed to the close contact of
platelet BN with increasing Vf, which increases the effective length
of the heat path through the matrix and in turn enhances the
thermal conductivity of composites with platelet llers [21].
For the BN/PVB composites with an in-plane orientation, the
Agari & Uno model ts the experimental thermal conductivity data
fairly well. This proposes a new model for lled polymers, which
takes into account both parallel and series conduction mechanisms. According to this, the expression governing the thermal
conductivity of a composite is as follows:
logkeff V f C 2 logkf 1  V f log C 1 km

(4)

where C1 (2.1) is a measure of the effect of particles on the

secondary structure of the polymer and C2 is a constant related to
when the particles begin to form conductive chains. The more
easily particles are gathered to form conductive chains, the more
the thermal conductivity of the particles contributes to the change
in the thermal conductivity of the composite and C2 approaches 1
[22]. In the present study, the C2 value was determined to be 1.01,
which indicates that the BN particles was oriented effectively with
an in-plane direction. However, the experimental data shows a
higher value from 0.3 to 0.5 Vf, which could be attributed to the
decrease in distance between BN particles.
For the BN/polymer composites with a out-of-plane orientation, the Bruggeman equation Eq. (5) is in good agreement with the
experimental thermal conductivity data.
1  Vf

 1=3
kf kc km
kf km kc

(5)

The Bruggeman equation is consider of the composites, the

ller, and the matrix for dilute suspension of spheres. This shows a
similar variation thermal conductivity with orientation, with the
experimental results of BN/epoxy composite with a out-of-plane
orientation in agreement with the Bruggeman model [23].
4. Conclusions
For composites with an identical volume fraction of BN, the
thermal conductivity was higher for BN/PVA composite than for a
BN/PVB composite, due to the higher degree of orientation caused
by the strong hydrogen bonding of BN/PVA. The thermal
conductivity of the amphiphilic-agent-treated BN/polymer composites was improved by the increase in interfacial adhesion
between BN and the polymer matrix. Compared to C27H27N3O2treated BN/polymer composites, C14H6O8-treatment produced a
higher thermal conductivity. This result is attributed to the larger
number of hydroxyl groups in C14H6O8 than in C27H27N3O2. The
HattaTaya and/or Agari & Uno model are both in good agreement
with the experimental thermal conductivity of BN/PVA and/or BN/
PVB composites with in-plane orientation at low volume fraction
(0.3 Vf for BN/PVA, 0.2 Vf for BN/PVB). However, the experimental
thermal conductivity of the out-of-plane oriented specimens ts
well the predicted thermal conductivity by the Bruggeman model.
Acknowledgements

Fig. 8. Comparison of experimental and theoretical thermal conductivity for BN/

polymer composites with various volume fractions (Vf) and orientations of BN and
different amphiphilic agents.

This work was supported by the Industrial Strategic Technology

Development Program, funded by the Ministry of Knowledge
Economy (MKE, Korea).

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H.J. Ahn et al. / Thermochimica Acta 590 (2014) 138144

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