Invited

Kun Huang

Senior Research Fellow

National Manufacturing Innovation Center for Graphene

China

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Report Topic

Development and Applications of Graphene-based Thermal Conductors

Driven by the thermal challenges of high-power equipment in AI computing and aerospace, traditional materials (metals, ceramics, polymers) are complemented by emerging high-thermal-conductivity materials such as diamond, diamond-copper (Cu/diamond), carbon fibers, and graphene. Among these, Cu/diamond has matured as a mainstream high-end heat sink solution due to its balanced thermal conductivity and CTE matching.
While conventional lateral graphite films suffer from limited cross-plane heat transfer, vertically aligned graphene thermal conductors overcome this via directional sheet assembly and interfacial bonding control. They offer tunable architecture: unidirectional configurations reach an axial thermal conductivity of 1200W/mK while quasi-isotropic configurations achieve an equivalent thermal conductivity of 800W/mK. With significant low-density and cost advantages, this lightweight platform complements Cu/diamond by directly targeting weight-critical, ultra-high heat flux applications in aerospace and beyond. The manufacturing process has been successfully scaled to production, with integrated solutions undergoing reliability validation and commercial deployment.

Biography

Dr. Kun Huang is the Founder and CEO of Ningbo Enno Tech Ltd., a Senior Researcher at the National Manufacturing Innovation Center for Graphene, and holds a Ph.D. in Materials Physics from the University of Manchester.

Specializing in two-dimensional (2D) materials and interface science, Dr. Huang previously conducted research on stacked graphene technologies at the National Graphene Institute (NGI), Manchester. As first or co-first author, he has published several papers in Nature portfolio journals, building a solid foundation in advanced nanomaterials.

Dr. Huang initiated commercialization in graphene thermal conductors, having established an automated production facility in Ningbo to promote lab-scale graphene to industrial-scale manufacturing. His work focuses on high-performance thermal management applications, including AI hardware architecture and aerospace systems, leveraging the unique ultralight and anisotropic thermal transport properties of graphene. As leader of an integrated thermal management technology platform, his work accelerates next-generation thermal material design, technology iteration, and commercial deployment.