Abstract

Highlights

Lamellar-structured graphene aerogels with vertically aligned and closely stacked high-quality graphene lamellae are fabricated.

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.

The nacre-like structure endows the epoxy composite with enhanced fracture toughness.

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.

Details

Title
3D Lamellar-Structured Graphene Aerogels for Thermal Interface Composites with High Through-Plane Thermal Conductivity and Fracture Toughness
Author
Liu, Pengfei 1 ; Li, Xiaofeng 2 ; Min, Peng 2 ; Chang, Xiyuan 3 ; Shu, Chao 2 ; Ding, Yun 2 ; Yu, Zhong-Zhen 4 

 Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, Beijing, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.48166.3d) (ISNI:0000 0000 9931 8406); Beijing University of Chemical Technology, State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.48166.3d) (ISNI:0000 0000 9931 8406) 
 Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, Beijing, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.48166.3d) (ISNI:0000 0000 9931 8406) 
 Beijing University of Chemical Technology, State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.48166.3d) (ISNI:0000 0000 9931 8406) 
 Beijing University of Chemical Technology, State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.48166.3d) (ISNI:0000 0000 9931 8406); Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.48166.3d) (ISNI:0000 0000 9931 8406) 
Pages
22
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Dec 2021
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
ISSN
23116706
e-ISSN
21505551
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2538892531
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.