Thermal conductivity of 3-dimensional graphene papers
Catherine O'Neill,
Michel B. Johnson,
Derek DeArmond,
Lu Zhang,
Noe Alvarez,
Vesselin N. Shanov,
Mary Anne White
Affiliations
Catherine O'Neill
Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
Michel B. Johnson
Clean Technologies Research Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
Derek DeArmond
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0012, USA
Lu Zhang
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Noe Alvarez
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0012, USA; Department of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0172, USA
Vesselin N. Shanov
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0012, USA; Corresponding author at: Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0012, USA.
Mary Anne White
Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada; Clean Technologies Research Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada; Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2 Canada; Corresponding author at: Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada.
The thermal conductivities of low-defect 3D graphene materials synthesized by CVD processes have been investigated experimentally. The materials investigated were prepared using pure Ni powdered catalyst (giving graphene paper, GP, so called because the bulk structure is a paper, with a 3-dimensional interconnected graphene microstructure), or nickel/polymer catalyst (giving polymer-assisted graphene paper, pGP, or, with double-thick nickel/polymer catalyst, pGP×2), all with and without additional compression. Room-temperature thermal conductivity of the graphene materials generally increased with increasing density, with values as high as 40 W m−1 K−1 and specific thermal conductivity of up to 220 mW m2 kg−1 K−1, although the porosity was quite high (~90% or higher). We show that larger graphene flakes and higher density lead to better intrinsic thermal conductivity. For compressed pGP×2, we investigated the temperature-dependence of the specific thermal conductivity, and found a broad maximum from T ~ 270 to 330 K, at a value of 230 ± 20 mW m2 kg−1 K−1.
