Thermal flow self-assembled anisotropic chemically derived graphene aerogels and their thermal conductivity enhancement

In this study, we investigated the directional heating of graphene oxide (GO) dispersion to generate a temperature gradient and form a simulated “ocean current” inside the dispersion so that GO sheets could be aligned in a directional manner and then reduced and self-assembled into anisotropic reduced graphene oxide (rGO) gel. After freeze-drying and varying degrees of vacuum microwave treatment, anisotropic chemically derived graphene aerogels (AGAs) were obtained. Through performance detection and the analysis of the results, it was verified that the AGAs with certain characteristics of “ocean current” were prepared in this experiment, and its axial direction has obvious directional arrangement. After being treated by vacuum microwave for a short time (1 min.), the axial thermal conductivity of the composite materials (AGA-adsorbed paraffin) was observed to be 1.074 W/mK, and the thermal conductivity enhancement efficiency was 995%; as compared with similar thermal conductivity enhancement composites that were found in previous studies, the proposed method in this paper has the advantages of simple processing, high efficiency, and energy conservation.