Ultralight, Ultraflexible, Anisotropic, Highly Thermally Conductive Graphene Aerogel Films

Abstract

Graphene aerogels have attracted much attention as a promising material for various applications. The unusually high intrinsic thermal conductivity of individual graphene sheets makes an obvious contrast with the thermal insulating performance of assembled 3D graphene materials. We report the preparation of anisotropy 3D graphene aerogel films (GAFs) made from tightly packed graphene films using a thermal expansion method. GAFs with different thicknesses and an ultimate low density of 4.19 mg cm−3 were obtained. GAFs show high anisotropy on average cross-plane thermal conductivity (K⊥) and average in-plane thermal conductivity (K||). Additionally, uniaxially compressed GAFs performed a large elongation of 11.76% due to the Z-shape folding of graphene layers. Our results reveal the ultralight, ultraflexible, highly thermally conductive, anisotropy GAFs, as well as the fundamental evolution of macroscopic assembled graphene materials at elevated temperature.

Keywords

• graphene aerogel film
• anisotropic material
• thermal conductivity