Highly Thermally Conductive 3D Printed Graphene Filled Polymer Composites for Scalable Thermal Management Applications

Abstract

Efficient thermal transportation in a preferred direction is highly favorable for thermal management issues. The combination of 3D printing and two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene, BN, and so on enables infinite possibilities for hierarchically aligned structure programming. In this work, we report the formation of the asymmetrically aligned structure of graphene filled thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composites during 3D printing process. The as-printed vertically aligned structure demonstrates a through-plane thermal conductivity (TC) up to 12 W m −1 K −1 at 45 wt % graphene content, which is ∼8 times of that of a horizontally printed structure and surpasses many of the traditional particle reinforced polymer composites. The superior TC is mainly attributed to the anisotropic structure design that benefited from the preferable degree of orientation of graphene and the multiscale dense structure realized by finely controlling the printing parameters. Finite element method (FEM) confirms the essential impact of anisotropic TC design for highly thermal conductive composites. This study provides an effective way to develop 3D printed graphene-based polymer composites for scalable thermal-related applications such as battery thermal management, electric packaging, and so on.

2022 roadmap on 3D printing for energy

“…As AM processes and technologies continue to evolve, new materials and post-processing techniques are expected to develop for high thermal conductivity metallic and polymer composite prints. Recent research on polymer composites and 2D materials such as graphene and boron nitride has shown the potential to preferably align the orientation of particles by finely controlled printing parameters, improving through-plane thermal conductivity [102].…”

Vertically Aligned Polyamidoxime/Graphene Oxide Hybrid Sheets’ Membrane for Ultrafast and Selective Extraction of Uranium from Seawater

“…Both structures had the same boundary convection and radiation conditions to minimize their influence on thermal conduction. [ 55 ] In addition, the top surface temperature of both models was set to the same value as suspending VA‐PG (42 °C; Figure S16B, Supporting Information) to study the transient thermal transfer process (Figure 4B). Owing to the high thermal conductivity, VA‐PG showed a faster heat transfer process, and the corresponding bottom temperature could reach ≈42 °C within 60 min (Figure 4C).…”

Recent Studies on Dispersion of Graphene–Polymer Composites

“…A graphene–polymer resin octet-truss lattice was used for 3D printing using stereolithography techniques [ 188 ]. Asymmetrically aligned structure of graphene thermoplastic polyurethane (PU) composites was utilized for 3D printing [ 189 ]. Graphene–polybutylene terephthalate composites have also been used for 3D printing [ 190 ].…”