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Flexible graphene electrothermal films made from electrochemically exfoliated graphite

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Abstract

Graphene nanosheets are facilely prepared by electrochemical exfoliation of graphite in sodium tungstate aqueous solution. Through a filtration-transfer procedure and followed by heat treatment, the graphene nanosheets are deposited on the polyethylene terephthalate substrate to form electrothermal films. The graphene electrothermal films exhibit low square resistance of 159 Ω/sq, high in-plane thermal conductivity of 658 W/m/K, and excellent heat propagation with uniform temperature distribution. The steady-state temperature of the films increases from 32 to 139 °C as the applied voltage increases from 5 to 30 V. The electrothermal response of the graphene films is as fast as <20 s. The graphene film heaters also display good flexibility. Even after bending 100 times, the graphene film heaters still exhibit almost the same electrothermal performance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21203236), Guangdong and Shenzhen Innovative Research Team Program (Nos. 2011D052, KYPT20121228160843692), Cooperation project of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hubei Province, Shenzhen High Density Electronic Packaging and Device Assembly Key Laboratory (ZDSYS20140509174237196), and Shenzhen Peacock Plan (KQCX2015033117354154).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Shenzhen High Density Electronic Packaging and Device Assembly Key Laboratory, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

      Chang Li, Yi-Tao Xu, Bo Zhao, Li Jiang, Xian-Zhu Fu & Rong Sun

    2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

      Chang Li & Shi-Guo Chen

    3. Department of Electronics Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

      Jian-Bin Xu & Ching-Ping Wong

    4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

      Ching-Ping Wong

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    1. Chang Li
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    Correspondence to Xian-Zhu Fu or Rong Sun.

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    Chang Li and Yi-Tao Xu have contributed equally to the work.

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    Li, C., Xu, YT., Zhao, B. et al. Flexible graphene electrothermal films made from electrochemically exfoliated graphite. J Mater Sci 51, 1043–1051 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9434-x

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