Effect of vacancy defects on the heat transfer coefficient of partially stacked graphene sheets

The heat transfer performance of the graphene network in the polymer is not so satisfactory due to the high interfacial thermal resistance between layered graphene. This paper constructs partially stacked graphene sheets models with random vacancies by the molecular dynamics to investigate the effect of vacancy coverage rate, stacking length and stacking forms on the heat transfer coefficient. The results indicate that the heat transfer coefficient of the whole system mainly depends on the effective thermal conductivity of the stacking region. As the vacancy coverage rate increases, the effective thermal conductivity of the stacking region increases rapidly and then decreases slowly due to the synthetic effect of the interfacial thermal resistance and in-plane thermal resistance. Further studies reveal the positive correlation between the stacking length and the effective thermal conductivity of the stacking region. However, the effective thermal conductivities of models with different stacking lengths converge to a similar value approximately at a high vacancy coverage rate. Finally, the stacking form is proved to have a slight influence on the effective thermal conductivity. This work is of practical importance for the design and application of graphene networks in composites materials.

Automated summary

This study investigates the effect of vacancy coverage rate, stacking length, and stacking forms on the heat transfer coefficient of graphene networks in composites materials. The results show that the effective thermal conductivity of the stacking region plays a significant role in determining the heat transfer coefficient. The vacancy coverage rate and stacking length are found to be positively correlated with the effective thermal conductivity of the stacking region.