Flexible layered reduced graphene oxide/aramid nanofiber composite membrane with high thermal conductivity and mechanical properties

Abstract Aramid nanofiber films have shown great potential for high-performance batteries and flexible electronics due to their lightweight and excellent formability. However, aramid nanofibers’ inherent low thermal conductivity severely limits their further applications in high-power electronic devices. Therefore, we attempted to prepare ANF-based composites with excellent thermal conductivity by using reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as a thermally conductive filler for ANF. In this work, we prepared rGO/ANF composite films with horizontal laminar structures by chemical reduction, vacuum-assisted filtration, and hot-press drying. Compared with the pure ANF film (λ, 0.52 W mK−1), the thermal conductivity of the rGO/ANF composite film was greatly improved, and the thermal conductivity increased with increasing rGO content. 50 wt% rGO/ANF composite film achieved an in-plane thermal conductivity of 7.45 W mK−1, 1182.7% higher than the ANF film, and the tensile strength reached 81.7 MPa. Overall, our prepared rGO/ANF composite film exhibits excellent thermal conductivity and good mechanical strength, which helps to explore the potential and development of aramid nanofibres applications in electronic devices.