journal article·2026-02Open access

Graphene‐Skinned Al 2 O 3 Enables High Thermal Conductivity Phase Change Composites for Thermal Management

Yawei You, Zilong Liu, Leyuan Wu, Xiangqi Meng, Shanmin Yang, Yuzhu Wu, Yuqing Song, Ningning Su, Nan Liu, Zhongfan Liu

Small· Volume 22· Issue 10

Abstract

ABSTRACT Phase change materials (PCMs) have exhibited significant application potential in thermal management and thermal energy storage, owing to their high latent heat and low cost. However, inherent drawbacks of certain PCMs (e.g., paraffin (PA)), such as low thermal conductivity (0.2 W·m −1 ·K −1 ) and liquid leakage during phase transition, lead to delayed thermal response and reliability issues, restricting their utilization in high‐precision thermal control scenarios. Herein, we propose an “interface enhancement” design strategy: constructing a composite system with graphene‐skinned alumina micropowder (G‐Al 2 O 3 ) as the cross‐scale thermal bridges to enhance the 3D thermally conductive skeleton of expanded graphite in PA phase change matrix. The high‐thermal‐conductivity network is synergistically coupled with the phase change medium during vacuum impregnation due to the well‐wetting behavior. The composite material achieves a thermal conductivity of 6.1 W·m −1 ·K −1 , representing a 2033% increase compared to pure PA, while retaining a high phase change latent heat of 210 J·g −1 . After 200 thermal cycles, the composite material exhibits a leakage rate of <5% and a latent heat attenuation rate of <2%. This study provides a novel approach for designing high‐efficiency thermal control materials, with potential applications in temperature stabilization of high‐power electronic devices and thermal storage systems for aerospace satellites.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Phase Change Materials Research · Thermal properties of materials · Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Systems

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Semiconductors and Physics Shanxi Key Laboratory of Graphene Sensing Materials and Devices North University of China Taiyuan P. R. China

Beijing Graphene Institute (BGI) Beijing P. R. China

Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials College of Chemistry Beijing Normal University Beijing P. R. China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences · Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality · National Key Research and Development Program of China

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