Spider Web-Inspired Graphene Skeleton-Based High Thermal Conductivity Phase Change Nanocomposites for Battery Thermal Management

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCMs) can be used for efficient thermal energy harvesting, which has great potential for cost-effective thermal management and energy storage. However, the low intrinsic thermal conductivity of polymeric PCMs is a bottleneck for fast and efficient heat harvesting. Simultaneously, it is also a challenge to achieve a high thermal conductivity for phase change nanocomposites at low filler loading. Although constructing a three-dimensional (3D) thermally conductive network within PCMs can address these problems, the anisotropy of the 3D framework usually leads to poor thermal conductivity in the direction perpendicular to the alignment of fillers. Inspired by the interlaced structure of spider webs in nature, this study reports a new strategy for fabricating highly thermally conductive phase change composites (sw-GS/PW) with a 3D spider web (sw)-like structured graphene skeleton (GS) by hydrothermal reaction, radial freeze-casting and vacuum impregnation in paraffin wax (PW). The results show that the sw-GS hardly affected the phase transformation behavior of PW at low loading. Especially, sw-GS/PW exhibits both high cross-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity enhancements of ~ 1260% and ~ 840%, respectively, at an ultra-low filler loading of 2.25 vol.%. The thermal infrared results also demonstrate that sw-GS/PW possessed promising applications in battery thermal management.

Emerging Flexible Thermally Conductive Films: Mechanism, Fabrication, Application

“…A large amount of heat is generated during the charging/discharging process of electrochemical energy storage devices, which causes a rapid degradation of capacity and thermal runaway [ 13 , 211 , 212 ]. When Li-ion battery and supercapacitor are operated at high temperature, the softening of polymer separator is possible to cause electrical short circuit [ 213 ].…”

“…When Li-ion battery and supercapacitor are operated at high temperature, the softening of polymer separator is possible to cause electrical short circuit [ 213 ]. Thus, thermally conductive films can also be used as the thermal management materials in energy storage devices to dissipate excess heat [ 13 , 214 ]. The research results demonstrated that BNNS composite membrane separator for Li-Ion battery can withstand an operating temperature up to 150 °C [ 213 , 214 ].…”

“…However, thermally conductive films with excellent flexibility and superhigh in-plane k are getting more attention than conventional thermally conductive materials, and significant efforts have been made in developing flexible in-plane thermally conductive films including pure polymer films, all-carbon films and polymer-based composite films (Fig. 1 ) [ 9 – 13 ].

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Vertical Alignment of Anisotropic Fillers Assisted by Expansion Flow in Polymer Composites

“…Constructing continuous thermal pathways is an efficient strategy to decrease ITR and enhance the through-plane TC [31][32][33]. Therefore, various methods, such as cutting-stacking, magnetic/electric fieldassisted alignment, and 3D printing, were studied to form vertical BN assembly to enhance the through-plane TC [34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. For example, Guo et al reported a stacking-cutting method to obtain vertical BN assembly relying on the transformation of alignment direction, and the as-prepared BN silicone composites showed a through-plane TC of 5.97 W m −1 K −1 at 60 wt% BN loading [41].…”

Crystallization induced realignment of carbon fibers in a phase change material to achieve exceptional thermal transportation properties

“…Constructing thermal conductive composites, by contrast, is attracting increasing attention because of its simplicity and effectiveness. 1–5…”