▎ 摘　　要

A simple yet innovative approach has been made through a powder metallurgy route for the synthesis of aluminum-graphene (Al-Gr) composite materials for commercially viable solar thermal collectors. The Al-Gr composite (with 1 wt. % of graphene filler content) recorded an enhanced thermal conductivity of similar to 280 W/mK, which is higher than that of pristine Al (similar to 124 W/mK), at room temperature. It has also been found that the prepared composite has a lower coefficient of thermal expansion. The structures and morphologies of the composites have been investigated in detail with the help of X-ray diffraction technique, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, etc. Furthermore, the density measurements showed that the composites retain similar to 97.5% of the density of pristine aluminum even after the sintering treatment. X-ray micro-computed tomography revealed the structural integrity and non-porous nature of the samples, free from any defects and deformations. The thermal fusing of Al-based composite materials at 630 degrees C is found to be satisfactory with the required strength, and the composites showed at least similar to 125% increase in the thermal conductivity than that of pristine Al. These results suggest that the Al-Gr composites can be deployed as solar thermal collectors and heat sink materials for thermal dissipation.