Synthesis of high-thermal-performance liquid metal composites via in- situ solid-liquid-gas catalytic reaction

YD Su and C Zhang and CY Song and Y Xu and C Zhang and WK Xing and WP Gao and MJ Jin and P Tao and W Shang and BW Fu and X Qian and TR Wu and T Deng, MATERIALS TODAY, 91, 286-297 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.mattod.2025.11.020

Gallium-based liquid metal (LM) composites, with unique properties and fluidity, hold great potential for advanced technological applications. The conventional approach to prepare gallium-based LM composites relies on the physical direct mixing of fillers under oxygen atmosphere. However, the formation of air gaps, gallium oxide or gallium-based intermetallic compounds would severely reduce the overall thermal/electrical performance. In this work, we have developed a chemical method to employ gallium-based binary alloy as catalyst for the in-situ synthesis of graphene sheets in the gallium-based LM via a CO2 bubbling-chemical vapor deposition method. The graphene sheets serve as both highly thermally conductive filler and protective layers that inhibit gallium alloying, resulting in a gallium-based LM composite with maximum thermal conductivity of up to 89.0 W m- 1 K- 1 while maintaining stable rheological property over a long period of time. Furthermore, we also theoretically studied the CO2 reduction and thermal transport mechanisms responsible for the enhanced thermal conductivity of LM composite.

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