A three-dimensional graphene skeleton as a fast electron and ion transport network for electrochemical applications

Abstract

This study presents a method to optimize the mass transport and electron transfer of metal oxides in electrochemical processes by using a three-dimensional (3D) porous graphene macroassembly (GM) as a framework. A simple method, pressurized infiltration, is reported to realize uniform dispersion of metal oxide nanoparticles on the graphene skeleton in the GM. The obtained GM–NiO hybrid shows significantly improved performance in electrochemical catalytic processes and energy storage applications. When used as the active material in nonenzymic sensors, it shows a low detection limit towards glucose while maintaining high sensitivity. It also shows a high capacitance of about 727 F g−1 and maintains high rate performance when used as the electrode material for supercapacitors. More importantly, this method may be sufficiently versatile for the hybridization of different kinds of noncarbon materials with GM to promote their practical applications.