Graphene-based thermally conductive material crosslinked by poly(ethylenimine) with high thermal and mechanical properties

In recent decades, graphene has become a very promising thermal management material due to its excellent thermal performance and flexibility. The interaction between adjacent graphene nanosheets, on the other hand, is Van der Waals, limiting the improvement of thermal performance and flexibility of graphenebased heat-conducting films. In this work, a poly(ethylenimine) (PEI)/graphene oxide (GO) /carbon nanotubes (CNTs) heat-conducting film was fabricated, in which PEI acts as a cross-linking agent to form cross-links between GO nanosheets, followed by carbonization and graphitization. Further investigations illustrate that the graphitized PEI/GO/CNTs film has excellent mechanical properties with a tensile strength of 198.3 +/- 15.6 MPa and excellent thermal performance with an in-plane thermal conductivity of 1038.4 +/- 25.07 W m(-1) K-1 and a through-plane thermal conductivity of 7.14 +/- 0.25 W m(-1) K-1. The graphene-based thermal conducting films have great potential in various fields, such as electronics, aerospace, 5G, etc.

Automated summary

Graphene has been a highly promising thermal management material in recent decades due to its excellent thermal performance and flexibility. However, the interaction between adjacent graphene nanosheets, which is Van der Waals, limits the improvement of thermal performance and flexibility in graphene-based heat-conducting films. In this study, a poly(ethylenimine) (PEI)/graphene oxide (GO)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) heat-conducting film was fabricated, where PEI acts as a cross-linking agent to form cross-links between GO nanosheets, followed by carbonization and graphitization. Further investigations showed that the graphitized PEI/GO/CNTs film exhibited excellent mechanical properties with a tensile strength of 198.3 +/- 15.6 MPa, and excellent thermal performance with an in-plane thermal conductivity of 1038.4 +/- 25.07 W m(-1) K-1 and a through-plane thermal conductivity of 7.14 +/- 0.25 W m(-1) K-1. Graphene-based thermal conducting films hold great potential in various fields, such as electronics, aerospace, 5G, etc.