Low cost preparation of high thermal conductivity carbon blocks with ultra-high anisotropy from a commercial graphite paper

A carbon block with ultra-high anisotropy was produced from a commercial graphite paper as the thermal reinforcement and a thermosetting phenolic resin as the binder. Hot-pressing at a maximum temperature of 200 °C was used to densify and integrate the graphite paper stacks. It has been found that the graphite paper blocks have high thermal conductivities in the paper direction and low ones perpendicular. An anisotropy of 98.8% and a thermal conductivity of 197.8 W m−1 K−1 in the paper direction were achieved when the density was 1.1 g cm−3. The thermal conductivity increased to 284.8 W m−1 K−1 with a decrease of anisotropy to 98.3% with a density of 1.56 g cm−3.