Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, developed a fast and efficient way to make a carbon material that could be ideally suited to dissipating heat in electronic devices such as cooling the powerful electronics packed inside the latest smartphones. This versatile material could also have additional uses ranging from gas sensors to solar cells.<\/p>\n
Many electronic devices use graphite films to dissipate heat generated by their electronic components. Although graphite is a naturally occurring form of carbon, heat management of electronics is a demanding application and usually relies on using high-quality micrometer-thick manufactured graphite films.<\/p>\n
But the method used to make graphite films using polymer as a source material is complex and energy intensive. According to Geetanjali Deokar, a postdoc in Pedro Costa\u2019s lab, who led the work at KAUST, the multistep process to make graphite films requires temperatures of up to 3200\u00b0C and cannot produce films thinner than a few micrometers.<\/p>\n
Deokar, Costa, and their colleagues developed a quick, energy-efficient way to make graphite sheets that are approximately 100 nm thick. The team grew nanometer-thick graphite films (NGF) on nickel foils using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in which the nickel catalytically converts hot methane gas into graphite on its surface with CVD growth steps in just five minutes and reaction temperatures at 900\u00b0C.<\/p>\n