We report on heat conduction properties of thermal interface materials with self-aligning “magnetic graphene” fillers. Graphene enhanced nano-composites were synthesized by an inexpensive and ...scalable technique based on liquid-phase exfoliation. Functionalization of graphene and few-layer-graphene flakes with Fe3O4 nanoparticles allowed us to align the fillers in an external magnetic field during dispersion of the thermal paste to the connecting surfaces. The filler alignment results in a strong increase of the apparent thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity through the layer of nano-composite inserted between two metallic surfaces. The self-aligning “magnetic graphene” fillers improve heat conduction in composites with both curing and non-curing matrix materials. The thermal conductivity enhancement with the oriented fillers is a factor of two larger than that with the random fillers even at the low ~1wt.% of graphene loading. The real-life testing with computer chips demonstrated the temperature rise decrease by as much as 10°C with use of the non-curing thermal interface material with ~1wt.% of the oriented fillers. Our proof-of-concept experiments suggest that the thermal interface materials with functionalized graphene and few-layer-graphene fillers, which can be oriented during the composite application to the surfaces, can lead to a new method of thermal management of advanced electronics.
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•We synthesized thermal interface materials with self-aligning “magnetic graphene” fillers.•Graphene filler alignment results in a strong increase of the thermal conductivity of nano-composites.•Testing with computer chips demonstrated significant temperature rise decrease
In this Perspective, I present a concise account concerning the emergence of the research field investigating the phononic and thermal properties of graphene and related materials, covering the ...refinement of our understanding of phonon transport in two-dimensional material systems. The initial interest in graphene originated from its unique linear energy dispersion for electrons, revealed in exceptionally high electron mobility, and other exotic electronic and optical properties. Electrons are not the only elemental excitations influenced by a reduction in dimensionality. Phononsquanta of crystal lattice vibrationsalso demonstrate an extreme sensitivity to the number of atomic planes in the few-layer graphene, resulting in unusual heat conduction properties. I outline recent theoretical and experimental developments in the field and discuss how the prospects for the mainstream electronic application of graphene, enabled by its high electron mobility, gradually gave way to emerging real-life products based on few-layer graphene, which utilize its unique heat conduction rather than its electrical conduction properties.
Recent years have seen a rapid growth of interest by the scientific and engineering communities in the thermal properties of materials. Heat removal has become a crucial issue for continuing progress ...in the electronic industry, and thermal conduction in low-dimensional structures has revealed truly intriguing features. Carbon allotropes and their derivatives occupy a unique place in terms of their ability to conduct heat. The room-temperature thermal conductivity of carbon materials span an extraordinary large range--of over five orders of magnitude--from the lowest in amorphous carbons to the highest in graphene and carbon nanotubes. Here, I review the thermal properties of carbon materials focusing on recent results for graphene, carbon nanotubes and nanostructured carbon materials with different degrees of disorder. Special attention is given to the unusual size dependence of heat conduction in two-dimensional crystals and, specifically, in graphene. I also describe the prospects of applications of graphene and carbon materials for thermal management of electronics.
Low-frequency noise with a spectral density that depends inversely on frequency has been observed in a wide variety of systems including current fluctuations in resistors, intensity fluctuations in ...music and signals in human cognition. In electronics, the phenomenon, which is known as 1/f noise, flicker noise or excess noise, hampers the operation of numerous devices and circuits, and can be a significant impediment to the development of practical applications from new materials. Graphene offers unique opportunities for studying 1/f noise because of its two-dimensional structure and widely tunable two-dimensional carrier concentration. The creation of practical graphene-based devices will also depend on our ability to understand and control the low-frequency noise in this material system. Here, the characteristic features of 1/f noise in graphene and few-layer graphene are reviewed, and the implications of such noise for the development of graphene-based electronics including high-frequency devices and sensors are examined.
A discovery of the unusual thermal properties of graphene stimulated experimental, theoretical and computational research directed at understanding phonon transport and thermal conduction in ...two-dimensional material systems. We provide a critical review of recent results in the graphene thermal field focusing on phonon dispersion, specific heat, thermal conductivity, and comparison of different models and computational approaches. The correlation between the phonon spectrum in graphene-based materials and the heat conduction properties is analyzed in details. The effects of the atomic plane rotations in bilayer graphene, isotope engineering, and relative contributions of different phonon dispersion branches are discussed. For readers' convenience, the summaries of main experimental and theoretical results on thermal conductivity as well as phonon mode contributions to thermal transport are provided in the form of comprehensive annotated tables.
Li-ion batteries are crucial components for progress in mobile communications and transport technologies. However, U-ion batteries suffer from strong self-heating, which limits their life-time and ...creates reliability and environmental problems. Here we show that thermal management and the reliability of Li-ion batteries can be drastically improved using hybrid phase change material with graphene fillers. Conventional thermal management of batteries relies on the latent heat stored in the phase change material as its phase changes over a small temperature range, thereby reducing the temperature rise inside the battery. Incorporation of graphene to the hydrocarbon-based phase change material allows one to increase its thermal conductivity by more than two orders of magnitude while preserving its latent heat storage ability. A combination of the sensible and latent heat storage together with the improved heat conduction outside of the battery pack leads to a significant decrease in the temperature rise inside a typical Li-ion battery pack. The described combined heat storage-heat conduction approach can lead to a transformative change in thermal management of Li-ion and other types of batteries.
We review the thermal properties of graphene, few-layer graphene and graphene nanoribbons, and discuss practical applications of graphene in thermal management and energy storage. The first part of ...the review describes the state-of-the-art in the graphene thermal field focusing on recently reported experimental and theoretical data for heat conduction in graphene and graphene nanoribbons. The effects of the sample size, shape, quality, strain distribution, isotope composition, and point-defect concentration are included in the summary. The second part of the review outlines thermal properties of graphene-enhanced phase change materials used in energy storage. It is shown that the use of liquid-phase-exfoliated graphene as filler material in phase change materials is promising for thermal management of high-power-density battery parks. The reported experimental and modeling results indicate that graphene has the potential to outperform metal nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and other carbon allotropes as filler in thermal management materials.
The inverse scattering problem is to reconstruct or recover some physical and/or geometric properties of an object from the measured scattered field in the process of illumination by an incident ...wave. The probing radiation can be an electromagnetic wave (e.g., microwave, optical wave, and X-ray), an acoustic wave, or some other waves. The inverse scattering problem is important when detailed information about the structure and composition of an object is required, but it cannot be obtained directly from the measurements. The paper is devoted to the electromagnetic inverse scattering problem for a dielectric anisotropic and magnetically isotropic media. The properties of an anisotropic medium with respect to electromagnetic waves are defined by the tensors, which give the relation between the inductions and the fields. The tensor Fourier diffraction theorem derived in the paper can be considered as a useful tool for studying tensor fields in inverse problems of electromagnetic scattering. The Fourier diffraction theorem is obtained in a coordinate-free representation by the use of tensor (dyadic) analysis techniques. The method of inversion is based on the first Born approximation.
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