Highly Thermally Conductive and High Shear Strength Graphene Fiber Composites via Molecular Conjugation Interface Engineering for Extreme Thermal Management

ABSTRACT Highly thermally conductive graphene fibers (GFs) hold exceptional promise for next‐generation high‐flux thermal management systems, yet their integration into advanced composites remains fundamentally limited by insufficient interfacial compatibility with polymer resin. This limitation severely restricts both thermal and mechanical transfer efficiency and compromises stability under extreme thermal cycling. Herein, a molecularly tailored conjugation interfaces engineering through strategically selected silane‐based molecular tethers grafted onto the wrinkled GF surfaces to establish covalent bridges into the epoxy network, effectively addressing the interfacial bonding dilemma between GFs and polymer resin is introduced. The resultant GF composites achieve a synergistic enhancement in interfacial shear strength increased by 61.6% (from 55.2 to 89.2 MPa) and a record‐level in‐plane thermal conductivity of 571.1 W m −1 K −1 . Critically, the thermal conductivity retention consistently exceeds 98% throughout 100 thermal shock cycles (25 to 125°C), confirming exceptional interfacial stability and thermal fatigue resistance. Furthermore, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal that rigid benzene ring of molecular tethers interphase enables exceptional interfacial thermal conductance of 373.56 MW m −2 K −1 between graphene and epoxy, while flexible or mismatched molecular tethers agents induce disorder and weaken spectral coupling. This molecular conjugation interface engineering unlocks the interfacial design and chemistry for improving thermomechanical performances of GF composites, paving the way for robust and high‐flux thermal management.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-01-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202522804
Primary Topic
Thermal properties of materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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Highly Thermally Conductive and High Shear Strength Graphene Fiber Composites via Molecular Conjugation Interface Engineering for Extreme Thermal Management

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Advanced Functional Materials
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article

Highly Thermally Conductive and High Shear Strength Graphene Fiber Composites via Molecular Conjugation Interface Engineering for Extreme Thermal Management

Fei Xing, Weiwei Lou, Yingbo Yan, Lu Chen, Xin Ming, Lin Qiu, Chao Gao, Zhanqin Yu, Peng Xu, Yingjun Liu, Chendong Ge, Xiangyang Feng, Bo Wang, Xueyin Chen, Lei He, Ji Zhou, Pengxiang Zhou, Guandong Wu, Jiahao Lu, Zhen Xu, Wenfei Shen, Shiqi Wu
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Highly thermally conductive graphene fibers (GFs) hold exceptional promise for next‐generation high‐flux thermal management systems, yet their integration into advanced composites remains fundamentally limited by insufficient interfacial compatibility with polymer resin. This limitation severely restricts both thermal and mechanical transfer efficiency and compromises stability under extreme thermal cycling. Herein, a molecularly tailored conjugation interfaces engineering through strategically selected silane‐based molecular tethers grafted onto the wrinkled GF surfaces to establish covalent bridges into the epoxy network, effectively addressing the interfacial bonding dilemma between GFs and polymer resin is introduced. The resultant GF composites achieve a synergistic enhancement in interfacial shear strength increased by 61.6% (from 55.2 to 89.2 MPa) and a record‐level in‐plane thermal conductivity of 571.1 W m −1 K −1 . Critically, the thermal conductivity retention consistently exceeds 98% throughout 100 thermal shock cycles (25 to 125°C), confirming exceptional interfacial stability and thermal fatigue resistance. Furthermore, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal that rigid benzene ring of molecular tethers interphase enables exceptional interfacial thermal conductance of 373.56 MW m −2 K −1 between graphene and epoxy, while flexible or mismatched molecular tethers agents induce disorder and weaken spectral coupling. This molecular conjugation interface engineering unlocks the interfacial design and chemistry for improving thermomechanical performances of GF composites, paving the way for robust and high‐flux thermal management.

Advanced Functional Materials
Westlake University (CN), China National Hybrid Rice R&D Central Hunan Hybrid Rice Reserch Center (CN), Detector Technology (United States) (US), First Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University (CN), Beijing University of Chemical Technology (CN), University of Science and Technology Beijing (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Xinmiao Talents Program
Openalex Percentile: Top 86%
Thermal properties of materials
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