The use of carbon materials with both highly anisotropic thermal and electrical conductivity to realize nanocomposites is still challenging because carbon materials tend to form random networks in nanocomposites.
Researcher Ma Yongmei from the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. Zheng Kun’s research team published a paper entitled "Flexible Graphene Nanocomposites with Simultaneous Highly Anisotropic Thermal and Electrical Conductivities Prepared by Engineered Graphene with Flat Morphology" in the journal ACS Nano, studying graphene in flat form As a functional filler, the graphene@naphthalenesulfonate (NS)/polyvinyl alcohol (GN/PVA) flexible nanocomposite is prepared by the LBL scraping method.
NS acts as a bridge connecting graphene (π-π interaction) and PVA (hydrogen bond). The resulting film has a highly ordered hierarchical structure and flat morphology. The structure is not only established in the plane Good electrical and thermal conductivity network, and effectively block the out-of-plane direction of electrical and thermal conduction paths, so as to realize the high performance of composite materials integrating high anisotropic thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity, and the composite materials show high Flexibility and tensile strength (increased from 40 MPa to 110 MPa).
In summary, the proposed strategy is effective for preparing nanocomposites with high flexibility and excellent anisotropic thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity.