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We investigated the temperature dependence of the conductance fluctuations in thin films of the quasi-two-dimensional 1T-TaS$_2$ van der Waals material. The conductance fluctuations, determined from the derivative current-voltage characteristics of two-terminal 1T-TaS$_2$ devices, appear prominently at the electric fields that correspond to the transitions between various charge-density-wave macroscopic quantum condensate phases and at the onset of the depinning of the charge density wave domains. The depinning threshold field, $E_D$, monotonically increases with decreasing temperature within the nearly commensurate charge-density-wave phase. The $E_D$ value increases with the decreasing 1T-TaS$_2$ film thickness, revealing the surface pinning of the charge density waves. Our analysis suggests that depinning is absent in the commensurate phase. It is induced by the electric field but facilitated by local heating. The measured trends for $E_D$ of the domain depinning are important for understanding the physics of charge density waves in quasi-two-dimensional crystals and for developing electronic devices based on this type of quantum materials., Comment: 25 pages; 7 figures

Development of the next generation thermal interface materials with high thermal conductivity is important for thermal management and packaging of electronic devices. We report on the synthesis and thermal conductivity measurements of non-curing thermal paste, i.e. grease, based on mineral oil with the mixture of graphene and few-layer graphene flakes as the fillers. It was found that graphene thermal paste exhibits a distinctive thermal percolation threshold with the thermal conductivity revealing a sublinear dependence on the filler loading. This behavior contrasts with the thermal conductivity of curing graphene thermal interface materials, based on epoxy, where super-linear dependence on the filler loading is observed. The performance of graphene thermal paste was benchmarked against top-of-the-line commercial thermal pastes. The obtained results show that non-curing graphene thermal interface materials outperforms the best commercial pastes in terms of thermal conductivity, at substantially lower filler concentration of ~ 27 vol%. The obtained results shed light on thermal percolation mechanism in non-curing polymeric matrices laden with quasi-two-dimensional fillers. Considering recent progress in graphene production via liquid phase exfoliation and oxide reduction, we argue that our results open a pathway for large-scale industrial application of graphene in thermal management of electronics., Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures

We report results regarding the electron transport in vertical quasi-2D layered 1T-TaS2 charge-density-wave devices. The low-frequency noise spectroscopy was used as a tool to study changes in the cross-plane electrical characteristics of the quasi-2D material below room temperature. The noise spectral density revealed strong peaks - changing by more than an order-of-magnitude - at the temperatures closely matching the electrical resistance steps. Some of the noise peaks appeared below the temperature of the commensurate to nearly-commensurate charge-density-wave transition, possibly indicating the presence of the debated "hidden" phase transitions. These results confirm the potential of the noise spectroscopy for investigations of electron transport and phase transitions in novel materials., Comment: 16 pages; 5 figures

We investigated thermal properties of the epoxy-based composites with a high loading fraction - up to f=45 vol.% - of the randomly oriented electrically conductive graphene fillers and electrically insulating boron nitride fillers. It was found that both types of the composites revealed a distinctive thermal percolation threshold at the loading fraction f>20 vol.%. The graphene loading required for achieving the thermal percolation was substantially higher than the loading for the electrical percolation. Graphene fillers outperformed boron nitride fillers in the thermal conductivity enhancement. It was established that thermal transport in composites with the high filler loading, above the thermal percolation threshold, is dominated by heat conduction via the network of percolating fillers. Unexpectedly, we determined that the thermal transport properties of the high loading composites were influenced strongly by the cross-plane thermal conductivity of the quasi-two-dimensional fillers. The obtained results shed light on the debated mechanism of the thermal percolation, and facilitate the development of the next generation of the efficient thermal interface materials for electronic applications., Comment: 29 pages; 5 figures

Li-ion batteries are crucial components for progress in mobile communications and transport technologies. However, Li-ion batteries suffer from strong self-heating, which limits their life-time and creates reliability and environmental problems. Here we show that thermal management and the reliability of Li-ion batteries can be drastically improved using hybrid phase change material with graphene fillers. Conventional thermal management of batteries relies on the latent heat stored in the phase change material as its phase changes over a small temperature range, thereby reducing the temperature rise inside the battery. Incorporation of graphene to the hydrocarbon-based phase change material allows one to increase its thermal conductivity by more than two orders of magnitude while preserving its latent heat storage ability. A combination of the sensible and latent heat storage together with the improved heat conduction outside of the battery pack leads to a significant decrease in the temperature rise inside a typical Li-ion battery pack. The described combined heat storage - heat conduction approach can lead to a transformative change in thermal management of Li-ion and other types of batteries., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures