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Vol. 13 (2021)

3D Lamellar-Structured Graphene Aerogels for Thermal Interface Composites with High Through-Plane Thermal Conductivity and Fracture Toughness

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00548-5
Pengfei Liu
Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Xiaofeng Li
Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Peng Min
Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Xiyuan Chang
State Key Laboratory of Organic‑Inorganic Composites, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Chao Shu
Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Yun Ding
Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of Chi
Zhong‑Zhen Yu
State Key Laboratory of Organic‑Inorganic Composites, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Zhong‑Zhen Yu

yuzz@mail.buct.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 13 (2021), Article Number: 22

Abstract

Although thermally conductive graphene sheets are efficient in enhancing in-plane thermal conductivities of polymers, the resulting nanocomposites usually exhibit low through-plane thermal conductivities, limiting their application as thermal interface materials. Herein, lamellar-structured polyamic acid salt/graphene oxide (PAAS/GO) hybrid aerogels are constructed by bidirectional freezing of PAAS/GO suspension followed by lyophilization. Subsequently, PAAS monomers are polymerized to polyimide (PI), while GO is converted to thermally reduced graphene oxide (RGO) during thermal annealing at 300 °C. Final graphitization at 2800 °C converts PI to graphitized carbon with the inductive effect of RGO, and simultaneously, RGO is thermally reduced and healed to high-quality graphene. Consequently, lamellar-structured graphene aerogels with superior through-plane thermal conduction capacity are fabricated for the first time, and its superior through-plane thermal conduction capacity results from its vertically aligned and closely stacked high-quality graphene lamellae. After vacuum-assisted impregnation with epoxy, the resultant epoxy composite with 2.30 vol% of graphene exhibits an outstanding through-plane thermal conductivity of as high as 20.0 W m−1 K−1, 100 times of that of epoxy, with a record-high specific thermal conductivity enhancement of 4310%. Furthermore, the lamellar-structured graphene aerogel endows epoxy with a high fracture toughness, ~ 1.71 times of that of epoxy.


Highlights:


1 Lamellar-structured graphene aerogels with vertically aligned and closely stacked high-quality graphene lamellae are fabricated.
2 The superior thermally conductive capacity of the aerogel endows epoxy with a high through-plane thermal conductivity of 20.0 W m−1 K−1 at 2.30 vol% of graphene content.
3 The nacre-like structure endows the epoxy composite with enhanced fracture toughness.

Keywords

Anisotropic aerogels Graphene Thermal conductivity Epoxy composites Fracture toughness
Liu, Pengfei, Xiaofeng Li, Peng Min, Xiyuan Chang, Chao Shu, Yun Ding, and Zhong‑Zhen Yu. 2020. “3D Lamellar-Structured Graphene Aerogels for Thermal Interface Composites With High Through-Plane Thermal Conductivity and Fracture Toughness”. Nano-Micro Letters 13 (November):22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00548-5.
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