Alexander Balandin and co-workers, University of California, Riverside, USA. have found that multiple layers of graphene retain the strong heat conducting properties observed in single sheets. Multiple layers are easier to make on a large scale than single sheets of sufficient quality for practical applications.

Balandin’s group also explained theoretically how the material’s ability to conduct heat evolves when one goes from conventional three-dimensional bulk materials to two-dimensional atomically-thin films, such as graphene.

The results may have important practical applications in removal of dissipated hear from electronic devices.

• Dimensional crossover of thermal transport in few-layer graphene
  S. Ghosh, W. Bao, D. Nika, S. Subrina, E. Pokatilov, C. N. Lau, A. Balandin
  Nat. Mat. 2010, Advance online publication 09 May 2010