Highly aligned welding of ultrathin graphene layer to robust carbon nanotube film for significantly enhanced thermal conductivity

Huili Fu; Dapeng Liu; Yingying Yu; Zhengpeng Yang; Yongyi Zhang; Bin Wang; Yutao Niu; Shengmin Jia

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ac2100

Highly aligned welding of ultrathin graphene layer to robust carbon nanotube film for significantly enhanced thermal conductivity

Nanotechnology. 2021 Sep 16;32(49). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac2100.

Authors

Huili Fu^{1

2}, Dapeng Liu^{1

2}, Yingying Yu², Zhengpeng Yang³, Yongyi Zhang^{1

2

4}, Bin Wang⁴, Yutao Niu⁴, Shengmin Jia^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China.
² Key Laboratory of Multifunctional Nanomaterials and Smart Systems, Advanced Materials Division, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
³ Henan Key Laboratory of Materials on Deep-Earth Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Division of Nanomaterials and Jiangxi Key Lab of Carbonene Materials, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Nanchang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanchang 330200, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 34433147
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac2100

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT) films have demonstrated great potential for highly efficient thermal management materials. However, how to enable a combined feature of excellent thermal conductivity and structural robustness, which is crucial for the high-performance realization, still remains challenging. Herein, an effective and facile strategy to solve the problem was proposed by developing a graphene (G)/CNT film with highly aligned welding of ultrathin G layer to robust CNT film. The unique architectural features of the obtained composite film enabled a high tensile strength (116 MPa) and electric conductivity (1.7 × 10³S cm^-1). Importantly, the thermal conductivity was significantly improved compared to neat CNT film, and reached as high as 174 W m^-1K^-1. In addition, the G/CNT film featured a superior electromagnetic shielding performance. This work provides useful guidelines for designing and fabricating the composite CNT film with prominent thermal conductivity, as well as excellent mechanical and electrical properties.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes and nanofibers; graphene; layered structures; thermal properties.