Achieving high thermal conductivity in CNTs@GF/Al laminates via a rapid and simple strategy

The present work developed a rapid and simple fabrication strategy to achieve the high thermal conductivity (TC) in graphite film (GF)/Al laminates. CNTs@GF prepared by spray flash technique was selected as reinforcement in Al matrix, then consolidated with Al foils by vaccum hot-pressing sintering. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were used to evaluate the GF and interface structure. The results revealed that no interfacial reaction products were generated in the highly dense composites. Specially, due to the heat conduction channel and interlocking effects of CNTs on GF/Al interface, the laminated composite containing 56.5 vol% CNTs@GF showed an in-plane TC of 897 W (m k)⁻¹ without bending strength sacrifice. The present work paves an efficient new way to design and fabricate GF/Al laminates for potential thermal management application.