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Thermal shock exfoliated and siloxane cross-linked graphene framework for high performance epoxy-based thermally conductive composites

  • Composites & nanocomposites
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Abstract

The fabrication of epoxy/graphene composites with greatly enhanced thermal conductivity (K) in terms of efficient thermal dissipation of electronic devices has drawn much interest. However, the lack of continuous thermal conductive paths and thermal interface resistances generated between matrix and fillers limit the further enhancement of the K value. Here, a siloxane cross-linked graphene framework (SGF) with highly conductive paths is prepared by a simple way, i.e., thermal-shock exfoliation of graphene oxide film followed by self-polymerization of silanol inside GF. The epoxy (EP) resin was then impregnated into SGF to form the EP/SCF composite. The mutual percolation of EP and SGF in the composite eliminates the distribution issue of graphene sheets. The siloxane molecular network not only cross-links adjacent graphene sheets, but also forms chemical bonding with EP matrix, resulting in significantly decreased inter-sheet and interface thermal resistances. The EP/SGF composite containing 20.2 wt% graphene exhibits an in-plane K of 54.2 W m–1 K–1, which is about twice higher than that of EP/GF without siloxane and 270 times higher than pure EP.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2019YFD1101204), the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51772150), and the Key Research and Development Program of Jiangsu Province (BE2018008-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 210009, China

    Chengjie Weng, Wen Li, Jian Wu, Liming Shen & Ningzhong Bao

  2. College of Chemical and Molecular Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 210009, China

    Wenzhong Yang

  3. National Engineering Laboratory of Eco-Friendly Polymeric Materials (Sichuan), State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Cong Deng

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  1. Chengjie Weng
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  2. Wen Li
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Correspondence to Liming Shen or Ningzhong Bao.

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Weng, C., Li, W., Wu, J. et al. Thermal shock exfoliated and siloxane cross-linked graphene framework for high performance epoxy-based thermally conductive composites. J Mater Sci 56, 17601–17614 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06147-y

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