Flexible and environmentally friendly graphene natural rubber composites with high thermal conductivity for thermal management

Composites with high thermal conductivity are urgently needed for thermal management devices. Although natural rubber (NR) with excellent elasticity are promising as flexible polymer for thermal management, their poor thermal conductivity limits their applications. In this work, a general water treatment route and an ice template process are used to prepare a 3D graphene aerogel. And environmentally friendly L-cysteine (Cys) are used to adjust the carbon-to-oxygen ratio of GO and thiol-functionalized GO. Benefiting from the 3D graphene network and strong interfacial interaction, the NR composites with graphene loading of 25 wt% showed thermal conductivity of 0.891 W/(m·K). At the same time, it also has good mechanical properties and antistatic properties. All the results indicate that Cys-GO@GNP/NR is expected to be a promising thermal management material.