Graphene Nanoarchitectonics: Approaching the Excellent Properties of Graphene from Microscale to Macroscale

• Published in: Journal of inorganic and organometallic polymers and materials 2015-03, Vol.25 (2), p.179-188
• Main Authors: Pan, Hui, Zhu, Shenmin, Mao, Lin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Inorganic Chemistry; Organic Chemistry; Polymer Sciences
• ISSN: 1574-1443; 1574-1451
• DOI: 10.1007/s10904-014-0073-5

As a single layer of graphite, graphene has been widely explored for its potential applications in many fields, such as electronics, energy storage, sensors, actuators, and composite materials. To achieve these purposes, assembling graphene nanosheets into macroscale bulk is indispensable. However, the prepared graphene materials at macroscale generally demonstrated a much lower performance in comparison to individual graphene nanosheets. Recently, great interest has been focused on the fabrication of graphene nanoarchitectonics, for the excellent properties of graphene at microscale are approaching at macroscale. During the fabrication process, four forms of driving forces are involved, including Van der Waals force, hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds as well as covalent bonds. In this feature article, we review the recent progress in 3D graphene architectures. This review highlights in materials’ properties rather than the morphology and processing methodology, as understanding the relationship between the assembly driving force and the performance of bulk materials. This review would be beneficial to the design of new graphene nanoarchitectonics and achieve graphene-based materials with high performance.