The invention provides a process for producing a highly oriented humic acid (HA) film-bonded metal foil current collector, comprising (a) preparing a dispersion of HA or chemically functionalized HA (CHA) dispersed in a liquid medium; (b) depositing the HA or CHA dispersion onto a primary surface of a metal foil to form a wet layer under an orientation-inducing stress; (c) removing the liquid medium to form a dried layer having hexagonal carbon planes and an inter-planar spacing d002 of 0.4 nm to 1.3; and (d) heat-treating the dried layer at a temperature higher than 80° C. to produce the current collector wherein the film contains inter-connected, merged or thermally reduced HA or CHA sheets that are substantially parallel to each other and are chemically bonded to the metal foil. The film has a thermal conductivity of at least 250 W/mK and an electrical conductivity no less than 500 S/cm.
