Novel flower-like graphene foam directly grown on a nickel template by chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Novel dense graphene foams were fabricated by directly growing graphene on nickel templates by chemical vapor deposition. The as-grown graphene foam showed a hierarchical structure consisting of graphene microspheres with nano pores as flower-like morphology. The high quality of the graphene foam was confirmed by Raman spectrum and conductivity measurement as high as 5100 S m−1. To test its potential application in lithium ion battery, the monolithic graphene foam hybridized with TiO2 nanoparticles as anode material was synthesized via atomic layer deposition. The electrode exhibited high specific capacity (204 mAh g−1, 91 mAh g−1) even at high current (20 C, 60 C, respectively, 1 C = 335 mA g−1) with good stability and reversibility. The outstanding electrical performance could be attributed to the flower-like dense porous nanostructure in the graphene foam, which would work not only as a highly conductive host matrix for ion and electron transportation, but also effectively buffer the volume expansion during the lithiation and delithiation process.