Zhejiang University’s Gaochao Team: Thermal Inversion of Polyacrylonitrile——A Thermal Conductive Film Preparation Strategy Based on the Confinement Effect of Graphene Layers

Research Background

Electronic equipment can quickly dissipate heat with the aid of heat dissipation components to maintain stable and reliable operation of the equipment and extend its service life

"Who knows that there is no less life, the water in front of the door can still be west" the poem describes the determination and desire of the ancients to break through adversity, so who can be sure that PAN and other polymers cannot break through the bottleneck of difficult graphitization? This work draws on the phenomenon that polymers can be re-orientated or crystallized under confined conditions.

Highlights of this article

(1) Found the limited orientation effect of graphene oxide on PAN cracking

(2) The high thermal conductivity flexible graphite film was prepared by using the limited orientation effect between layers

brief introduction

In order to analyze the morphological changes induced by polymers between graphene layers, the Zhejiang University Gaochao team prepared polyacrylonitrile confinement between the GO sheets to prepare a composite film.

Figure 1.

The mixed GO and PAN were scraped into a thin film, and after 270 oC hot pressing and 2800 oC high temperature heat treatment, the graphitization transformation of PAN and the preparation of high thermal conductivity flexible graphite film were realized

Figure 2.

Through the interlayer confinement of GO, it is found that PAN can successively realize the process of reorientation, layering and high graphitization

Figure 3.

The SEM image directly shows that after GO is added, the bulk PAN gradually shows a tendency of delamination.

Figure 4.

Pure PAN film exhibits brittleness after heat treatment at 2800 oC, while after adding GO, it exhibits excellent flexibility

The work was completed on the basis of the previous accumulation of professors Gaochao and previous experience summaries (Adv.
Mater.
29 (2017) 1700589; Carbon 167 (2020) 249-255; Nanoscale 12 (2020) 11971–11978; Science 372 (2021) 614-617)
.

Related results were published on Carbon with the title "Polyacrylonitrile-derived thermally conductive graphite film via graphene template effect"
.
The first author of the paper is Huang Haoguang, a doctoral student of the super team
.
The corresponding authors are Professor Gao Chao and postdoctoral Peng Li.
The paper was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Hundred Talents Program of Zhejiang University and other related funds
.