As the power density and integration level of electronic devices increase, there are growing demands to improve the thermal conductivity of polymers for addressing the thermal management issues. On the basis of the ultrahigh intrinsic thermal conductivity, graphene has exhibited great potential as reinforcing fillers to develop polymer composites, but the resultant thermal conductivity of reported graphene-based composites is still limited. Here, an interconnected and highly ordered graphene framework (HOGF) composed of high-quality and horizontally aligned graphene sheets was developed by a porous film-templated assembly strategy, followed by a stress-induced orientation process and graphitization post-treatment. After embedding into the epoxy (EP), the HOGF/EP composite (24.7 vol %) exhibits a record-high in-plane thermal conductivity of 117 W m-1 K-1, equivalent to ≈616 times higher than that of neat epoxy. This thermal conductivity enhancement is mainly because the HOGF as a filler concurrently has high intrinsic thermal conductivity, relatively high density, and a highly ordered structure, constructing superefficient phonon transport paths in the epoxy matrix. Additionally, the use of our HOGF/EP as a heat dissipation plate was demonstrated, and it achieved 75% enhancement in practical thermal management performance compared to that of conventional alumina for cooling the high-power LED.
Keywords: highly ordered graphene framework; stress-induced orientation; structure modulation; thermal management; thermally conductive composite.