Flexible and Transparent Electrothermal Film Heaters Based on Graphene Materials

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 7; no. 22; pp. 3186 - 3192
• Main Authors: Sui, Dong, Huang, Yi, Huang, Lu, Liang, Jiajie, Ma, Yanfeng, Chen, Yongsheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 18-11-2011; WILEY‐VCH Verlag
• Subjects: Annealing; Density; Electric Conductivity; Electric potential; Electrochemistry - instrumentation; electrothermal; film heaters; Graphene; Graphite - chemistry; Heating; Heating rate; Humidity; Imides; Microscopy, Atomic Force; Pliability; Quartz - chemistry; Spectrophotometry, Infrared; Temperature; thin films; Time Factors; Transmittance; transparent films; Voltage
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.201101305

High‐performance and novel graphene‐based electrothermal films are fabricated through a simple yet versatile solution process. Their electrothermal performances are studied in terms of applied voltage, heating rate, and input power density. The electrothermal films annealed at high temperature show high transmittance and display good heating performance. For example, the graphene‐based film annealed at 800 °C, which shows transmittance of over 80% at 550 nm, can reach a saturated temperature of up to 42 °C when 60 V is applied for 2 min. Graphene‐based films annealed at 900 and 1000 °C can exhibit high steady‐state temperatures of 150 and 206 °C under an applied voltage of 60 V with a maximum heating rate of over 7 °C s−1. For flexible heating films patterned on polyimide, a steady‐state temperature of 72 °C could be reached in less than 10 s with a maximum heating rate exceeding 16 °C s−1 at 60 V. These excellent results, combined with the high chemical stability and mechanical flexibility of graphene, indicate that graphene‐based electrothermal elements hold great promise for many practical applications, such as defrosting and antifogging devices.
Transparent and flexible graphene electrothermal films are prepared on different substrates such as quartz and polyimide. These films show high electrothermal performances and several potential applications are proposed.