Effective thermal management is quite urgent for electronics owing to their ever-growing integration degree, operation frequency and power density, and the main strategy of thermal management is to remove excess energy from electronics to outside by thermal conductive materials. Compared to the conventional thermal management materials, flexible thermally conductive films with high in-plane thermal conductivity, as emerging candidates, have aroused greater interest in the last decade, which show great potential in thermal management applications of next-generation devices. However, a comprehensive review of flexible thermally conductive films is rarely reported. Thus, we review recent advances of both intrinsic polymer films and polymer-based composite films with ultrahigh in-plane thermal conductivity, with deep understandings of heat transfer mechanism, processing methods to enhance thermal conductivity, optimization strategies to reduce interface thermal resistance and their potential applications. Lastly, challenges and opportunities for the future development of flexible thermally conductive films are also discussed.

由于电子产品的集成度、工作频率和功率密度不断提高，有效的热管理非常迫切，热管理的主要策略是通过导热材料将电子产品中的多余能量转移到外部。与传统的热管理材料相比，具有高面内热导率的柔性导热薄膜作为新兴的候选者，在过去十年中引起了更大的兴趣，在下一代设备的热管理应用中显示出巨大的潜力。然而，很少有关于柔性导热膜的全面综述的报道。因此，我们回顾了本征聚合物薄膜和具有超高面内热导率的聚合物基复合薄膜的最新进展，对传热机理、提高导热性的加工方法、降低界面热阻的优化策略及其潜在应用有深入的了解。最后，还讨论了柔性导热薄膜未来发展的挑战和机遇。