Polyacrylonitrile-derived thermally conductive graphite film via graphene template effect

Stable operation of electronic devices requires flexible and thermally conductive graphite film (GF) to spread the locally generated heat in devices. However, the tedious and harsh production procedure, high cost, and brittle nature of commercially available GF derived from polyimide (PI) limited its further applications. Here, we used graphene sheets as a template to induce graphitization of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in confined 2D space, and thereby generated high crystalline GF. The obtained flexible GF showed a high in-plane thermal conductivity (K) of 1282 W m−1 K−1 and conductivity (σ) of 9.94 × 105 S m−1. The K is 7.3 times than that of pure PAN-derived film, and even higher than pure graphene film (1201 W m−1 K−1). Besides, it is easy to produce thick GF (80 μm), which is difficult to achieve in conventional artificial GF. Our work promises low-cost and easy preparation of high-quality GFs from non-graphitizable synthetic and natural macromolecules with the aid of graphene template structure-directing effect. [Display omitted]