Free-standing graphene aerogel with improved through-plane thermal conductivity after being annealed at high temperature

Xiaoxiao Guo; Shujian Cheng; Bo Yan; Yile Li; Ruoyu Huang; Junxiao Li; Weiwei Cai; Yufeng Zhang; Yinghui Zhou; Xue-Ao Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.134

Free-standing graphene aerogel with improved through-plane thermal conductivity after being annealed at high temperature

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Feb 15;608(Pt 3):2407-2413. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.134. Epub 2021 Oct 30.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
² College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; Jiujiang Research Institute of Xiamen University, Jiujiang 360404, China.
³ College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; Jiujiang Research Institute of Xiamen University, Jiujiang 360404, China. Electronic address: xazhang@xmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 34753625
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.10.134

Abstract

Both high through-plane thermal conductivity and low elastic modulus can reduce thermal interface resistance, which is important for thermal interface materials. The internal porous structure of graphene aerogel (GA) makes it to have a low elastic modulus, which results in its good compressibility. Also, the network structure of GA provides thermal conducting paths, which improve the through-plane thermal conductivity of GA. Annealing GA at 3000 °C helps to remove oxygen-containing functional groups and reduces defects. This greatly improves its crystallinity, which further leads to the improvement of its through-plane thermal conductivity and it has a low modulus of 1.37Mpa. The through-plane thermal conductivity of GA annealed at 3000 °C (GA-3000) was improved as the pressure increased and got to 2.93 W/ m K at a pressure of 1.13 MPa, which is 30 times higher than other graphene-based thermal interface materials (TIMs). These discoveries offer a novel approach for preparing excellent TIMs.

Keywords: Anneal; Compressure; Elastic; Graphene aerogel; Thermal conductivity.