Research progress on heat conduction in graphene

Graphene excels at thermal and electrical conductivity, due to its highest thermal conductivity among currently known materials, even that of single-layer graphene (SLG) at room temperature can reach as high as 5300 W·m–1·K–1. Considering this, more graphene has been widely used in thermal management. This article reviews the research status of the thermal conductivity of graphene and its composites, including heat transfer mechanism, and proposes the opportunities and challenges that graphene heat conduction engages with. Three sections are concluded in this work; the first section focuses on the thermal conductivity of graphene, including the influence of the number of layers, size dependence, defect effects, isotopes, atomic doping, and oxidation effects; the second section hovers over the interfacial phonon heat transfer in graphene composites; the last section further summarizes the application of graphene to thermal management of varied materials.