Functional Graphene Monolithic with Controllable Nanostructure and Its Applications on Energy Devices(1/3)

This project focus on the investigation on material properties and its related applications of a novel graphene-based cellular monoliths. The novel self-assembled porous 3D graphene structure were madeby combing of graphene chemistry with ice-physics, where the freezing of graphene suspension cause the graphene sheet accumulated between the growing ice crystals, resulting porous graphene structure when the ice were removed. This kind of bulk material shows tremendous properties such as ultralow density, good electrical conductivity, superelasticity, where a recent report create a superelastic composite based on this novel structure. The related potential applications relay on energy storage, biological tissue scaffolds, biosensors However, there still lack of cost effective production approaches. In this study, we proposed to create the hierarchical porosity composed of the submicrometer porosity(5~20 μm) of 3D graphene self-assembled by nanopores(2.0~50 nm)of graphene flakes. The hierarchical 3D porosity of the graphene electrode can be prepared by a facile and scalable approach.Moreover, recent work by hetero atom doping have been regarded as a promising method to obtain the high active metal-free catalyst. The co-doping with above two hetero atoms were demonstrated to yield ultra high density of active site. The mechanism was attribute to the charge induced dipole and the spin density. The comprising of aforementioned hierarchical 3D porosity of the graphene electrode with various doping fashions, it is expected to achieve high specific area and high catalytic activity catalyst for the energy related applications such as oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction(HER) and supercapacitors. Especially, some of the catalytic mechanisms for the doped graphene still unclear. And the practical applications was hindered by the limitation of scalable production and doping concentration. In this project, we arrange a three year plans: our 1st year plan is to synthesis the hierarchical 3D porosity of the graphene electrode and optimize the controlling factors and the fundamental material properties. The 2nd year plan is the development of various doping technology, especially the hetero atom doping and co-doping. In the 3rd year plan, the related energy storage and energy generation devices such as supercapacitor, hydrogen evolution, and oxygen reduction for fuel cell made by such novel graphene structure will be investigated.