Functional graphene paper from smart building to sensor application

Abstract

Graphene papers (GPs) have revolutionized the area of sensors toward low-cost, user-friendly and wearable/portable owning to their unique properties such as scalable production capacity, tunable microstructure, and extraordinary mechanical flexibility. They can be utilized as versatile building blocks by regulating their architectures to enhance various properties like electronic property, thermal conductivity and mechanical strength. Furthermore, thanks to the excellent compatibility, GPs as support materials are able to associate with other materials through various interaction forces to realize specific functionalization. With the impressive performances mentioned above, lots of smart devices like flexible sensors, advanced wearable/stretchable electronics, and high-performance point-of-care analytical devices are continually and rapidly being developed. Herein, this review aims at offering a critical engineering insight from smart architecture of macroscopic GPs to sensor application, with the emphasis on purpose-driven specific dual-mode functionalization (structural functionalization and foreign materials functionalization). We summarize the multiple possibilities to functionalize graphene and its derivative based papers/films/membranes. The sensing application of GPs in human health management, food contaminant inspection, and environmental monitoring is evaluated just before leading to our conclusions and perspectives.