Flexible graphene/boron nitride nanosheets paper for thermal management of high power electronics

TL;DR

This paper presents a flexible hybrid graphene/boron nitride nanosheet paper that maintains high thermal conductivity while significantly reducing electrical conductivity, making it suitable for thermal management in high power electronics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid paper combining graphene and boron nitride nanosheets to optimize thermal and electrical properties for electronic heat management.

Findings

Hybrid paper has similar thermal conductivity to pure graphene paper.

Electrical conductivity is significantly reduced in the hybrid paper.

The hybrid paper exhibits improved thermal stability.

Abstract

Graphene nanosheets (GNS) paper is widely regarded as a promising candidate for heat dissipation due to its outstanding thermal conductivity. However, the accompanied high electrical conductivity makes it unfavorable for thermal management of high power electronics since it runs a high risk of short circuits. To eliminate the risk from the high electrical conductivity and simultaneously maintain the excellent thermal performance, we introduce boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) that possess high thermal conductivity but electrical insulation into the GNS paper. The hybrid paper has a much lower electrical conductivity but similar thermal performance compared to the pristine GNS paper. Besides, the flexible hybrid paper exhibits better thermal stability than pure GNS paper. Our results show that the ability of BNNS to change the electrical conductivity of paper without affecting its thermal conductivity is potential for the application of heat management materials with tailored electrical properties.