Controlling anisotropic thermal properties of graphene aerogel by compressive strain

Xiaoxiao Guo; Shujian Cheng; Ke Xu; Bo Yan; Yile Li; Weiwei Cai; Jiafa Cai; Binbin Xu; Yinghui Zhou; Yufeng Zhang; Xue-Ao Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.03.130

Controlling anisotropic thermal properties of graphene aerogel by compressive strain

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Aug:619:369-376. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.03.130. Epub 2022 Mar 31.

Authors

Xiaoxiao Guo¹, Shujian Cheng¹, Ke Xu¹, Bo Yan¹, Yile Li¹, Weiwei Cai², Jiafa Cai², Binbin Xu³, Yinghui Zhou², Yufeng Zhang⁴, Xue-Ao Zhang⁵

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 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
⁴ College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; Jiujiang Research Institute of Xiamen University, Jiujiang 360404, China. Electronic address: yufengzhang@xmu.edu.cn.
⁵ 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: 35398767
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.03.130

Abstract

Materials with adjustable wide-ranging thermal conductivity are desired to tackle the problem of thermal management for electronic devices operating in an extended range of temperature. In this study, graphene aerogels (GAs) are fabricated and transformed from thermal insulators to thermal conductors by high-temperature annealing. The highest through-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity of annealed GA reaches 3.3 and 96 W/m·K, respectively, under 95% compressive strain. Using the annealed GA as thermal interface material leads to superior performance than commercially available products that have higher through-plane thermal conductivity in dissipating heat for high-power electronic devices (e.g., LED lamp). Furthermore, due to excellent elasticity, the thermal resistance of annealed GAs can be reversibly tuned about six-fold by compressive strain. This paves a novel venue in designing thermal management system for devices, which not only need excellent heat dissipation but also good thermal insulation at various operating environments.

Keywords: Anisotropy; Dynamic; Graphene aerogel; Heat dissipation; Thermal conductivity.