Anisotropy of Thermal Conductivity of Free-Standing Reduced Graphene Oxide Films Annealed at High Temperature

We investigated thermal conductivity of free-standing reduced graphene oxide films subjected to a high-temperature treatment of up to 1000 C. It was found that the high-temperature annealing dramatically increased the in-plane thermal conductivity, K, of the films from 3 W/mK to 61 W/mK at room temperature. The cross-plane thermal conductivity, Kc, revealed an interesting opposite trend of decreasing to a very small value of 0.09 W/mK in the reduced graphene oxide films annealed at 1000 C. The obtained films demonstrated an exceptionally strong anisotropy of the thermal conductivity, K/Kc ~ 675, which is substantially larger even than in the high-quality graphite. The electrical resistivity of the annealed films reduced to 1 - 19 Ohms/sq. The observed modifications of the in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivity components resulting in an unusual K/Kc anisotropy were explained theoretically. The theoretical analysis suggests that K can reach as high as ~500 W/mK with the increase in the sp2 domain size and further reduction of the oxygen content. The strongly anisotropic heat conduction properties of these films can be useful for applications in thermal management.

Thermal Conductivity of Graphene Laminate: Making Plastic Thermally Conductive

We have investigated thermal conductivity of graphene laminate films deposited on polyethylene terephthalate substrates. Two types of graphene laminate were studied - as deposited and compressed - in order to determine the physical parameters affecting the heat conduction the most. The measurements were performed using the optothermal Raman technique and a set of suspended samples with the graphene laminate thickness from 9 to 44 micrometers. The thermal conductivity of graphene laminate was found to be in the range from 40 W/mK to 90 W/mK at room temperature. It was found unexpectedly that the average size and the alignment of graphene flakes are more important parameters defining the heat conduction than the mass density of the graphene laminate. The thermal conductivity scales up linearly with the average graphene flake size in both uncompressed and compressed laminates. The compressed laminates have higher thermal conductivity for the same average flake size owing to better flake alignment. The possibility of up to 600X enhancement of the thermal conductivity of plastic materials by coating them with the thin graphene laminate films has important practical implications.