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Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Synthesis and Functionalization of 3D Nano-graphene Materials: Graphene Aerogels and Graphene Macro Assemblies
Published on: November 5, 2015
Highly Oriented Graphite Aerogel Fabricated by Confined Liquid-Phase Expansion for Anisotropically Thermally
Mengxiong Li1, Jiangwei Liu1,2, Shaoxue Pan1
1State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Polymers and Polymer Composites, Fudan University, 2005 Songhu Road, Shanghai 200438, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Graphene-based thermally conductive polymer composites are of great importance for the removal of the excess heat generated by electronic devices. However, due to the orientation of graphene sheets in the polymer matrix, the through-plane thermal conductivity of polymer/graphene composites remains far from satisfactory. We here demonstrate a confined liquid-phase expansion strategy to fabricate highly oriented confined expanded graphite (CEG) aerogels. After being incorporated into epoxy resin (EP), the resulting EP/CEG composites exhibit a high through-plane thermal conductivity (4.14 ± 0.21 W m-1 K-1) at a quite low filler loading of 1.75 wt % (0.91 vol %), nearly 10 times higher than that of neat EP resin and 7.5 times higher than the in-plane thermal conductivity of the composite, indicating that the CEG aerogel has a high through-plane thermal conductivity enhancement efficiency that outperforms those of many graphite/graphene-based fillers. The facile preparation method holds great industrial application potential in fabricating anisotropic thermally conductive polymer composites.

