Graphene's Exceptional Properties Research Articles

3D Printed Graphene and Graphene/Polymer Composites for Multifunctional Applications.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, alternatively known as additive manufacturing, is a transformative technology enabling precise, customized, and efficient manufacturing of components with complex structures. It revolutionizes traditional processes, allowing rapid prototyping, cost-effective production, and intricate designs. The 3D printed graphene-based materials combine graphene's exceptional properties with additive manufacturing's versatility, offering precise control over intricate structures with enhanced functionalities. To gain comprehensive insights into the development of 3D printed graphene and graphene/polymer composites, this review delves into their intricate fabrication methods, unique structural attributes, and multifaceted applications across various domains. Recent advances in printable materials, apparatus characteristics, and printed structures of typical 3D printing techniques for graphene and graphene/polymer composites are addressed, including extrusion methods (direct ink writing and fused deposition modeling), photopolymerization strategies (stereolithography and digital light processing) and powder-based techniques. Multifunctional applications in energy storage, physical sensor, stretchable conductor, electromagnetic interference shielding and wave absorption, as well as bio-applications are highlighted. Despite significant advancements in 3D printed graphene and its polymer composites, innovative studies are still necessary to fully unlock their inherent capabilities.

Fluorinated Graphene Enables the Growth of Inorganic Thin Films by Chemical Bath Deposition on Otherwise Inert Substrates.

Chemically modified graphenes (CMGs) offer a means to tune a wide variety of graphene's exceptional properties. Critically, CMGs can be transferred onto a variety of substrates, thereby imparting functionalities to those substrates that would not be obtainable through conventional functionalization. One such application of CMGs is enabling and controlling the subsequent growth of inorganic thin films. In the current study, we demonstrated that CMGs enhance the growth of inorganic films on inert surfaces with poor growth properties. Fluorinated graphene transferred onto polyethylene enabled the dense and homogeneous deposition of a cadmium sulfide (CdS) film grown via chemical bath deposition. We showed that the coverage of the CdS film can be controlled by the degree of fluorination from less than 20% to complete coverage of the film. The approach can also be applied to other technologically important materials such as ZnO. Finally, we demonstrated that electron beam-generated plasma in a SF6-containing background could pattern fluorine onto a graphene/PE sample to selectively grow CdS films on the fluorinated region. Therefore, CMG coatings can tailor the surface properties of polymers and control the growth of inorganic thin films on polymers for the development of flexible electronics.

Enhancing Hematite Photoanode Activity for Water Oxidation by Incorporation of Reduced Graphene Oxide.

Two effective methods to prepare reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/hematite nanostructured photoanodes and their photoelectrochemical characterization towards water splitting reactions are presented. First, graphene oxide (GO) is reduced to rGO using hydrazine in a basic solution containing tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH), and then deposited over the nanostructured hematite photoanodes previously treated at 750 °C for 30 min. The second method follows the deposition of a paste containing a mixture of hematite nanoparticles and rGO sheets by the doctor-blade method, varying the rGO concentration. Since hematite suffers from low electron mobility, a low absorption coefficient, high recombination rates and slow reaction kinetics, the incorporation of rGO in the hematite can overcome such limitations due to graphene's exceptional properties. Using the first method, the rGO incorporation results in a photocurrent density increase from 0.56 to 0.82 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 VRHE. Our results indicate that the rGO incorporation in the hematite photoanodes shows a positive effect in the reduction of the electron-hole recombination rate.