Emerging Flexible Thermally Conductive Films: Mechanism, Fabrication, Application

Abstract

Highlights

The state-of-the-art progress of flexible thermally conductive films with ultrahigh in-plane isotropic thermal conductivity (k) and potential application are summarized.

The heat transfer mechanism, processing methods to enhance k, optimization strategies to reduce interface thermal resistance of flexible thermally conductive films are reviewed.

The limitations and opportunities for the future development of flexible thermally conductive films are proposed.

Effective thermal management is quite urgent for electronics owing to their ever-growing integration degree, operation frequency and power density, and the main strategy of thermal management is to remove excess energy from electronics to outside by thermal conductive materials. Compared to the conventional thermal management materials, flexible thermally conductive films with high in-plane thermal conductivity, as emerging candidates, have aroused greater interest in the last decade, which show great potential in thermal management applications of next-generation devices. However, a comprehensive review of flexible thermally conductive films is rarely reported. Thus, we review recent advances of both intrinsic polymer films and polymer-based composite films with ultrahigh in-plane thermal conductivity, with deep understandings of heat transfer mechanism, processing methods to enhance thermal conductivity, optimization strategies to reduce interface thermal resistance and their potential applications. Lastly, challenges and opportunities for the future development of flexible thermally conductive films are also discussed.