Functionalization of graphite via Diels-Alder reaction to fabricate poly (vinyl alcohol) composite with enhanced thermal conductivity

Surface modification of filler is often utilized to effectively reduce interfacial thermal resistance in thermal conductive materials . In this work, pristine graphite was modified via Diels-Alder reaction with acrylic acid to improve the inertness of graphite (AA@G). FT-IR, Raman and XPS confirmed the reaction onto the surface of graphite. A series of poly (vinyl alcohol) composite loaded with AA@G and graphite was fabricated to investigate the interfacial interaction between matrix and filler. Both XRD and DSC showed that introducing of AA@G would decrease crystallinity of PVA matrix in composite, providing convincing evidence of strong interfacial interaction. Owing to the excellent interfacial interaction, the maximum TC of composite loaded with 30 wt% AA@G reached to 21.3Wm −1 K −1 , which was 44% higher that of composite loaded with the same mass fraction of graphite (14.1Wm −1 K −1 ). With the synergistic increment in thermal conductive performance, AA@G exhibited extremely high enhanced efficiency of 358% compared with other literature. Also, good thermal stability makes AA@G potential in thermal management system and flexible electronics.