Chemically Modified Graphene Nanosheets for Highly Efficient Energy Storage and Conversion Systems

NanochemistryDue to the resource exhaustion and environmental issues, the increasing energy demands have stimulated intense research on alternative energy storage and conversion systems with high efficiency, low cost, and environmental benignity. Graphene, two-dimensional sp2-hybridized carbon structure, has recently attracted enormous interest for promising electrode materials due to its superior properties such as high electrical conductivity, large surface area, and chemical and mechanical stability. Chemical exfoliation method has been the most popular protocols to achieving stable suspensions in various solvents. This approach is a very efficient and scalable; however, it unavoidably introduces the surface defects, which hamper the conductivity of the resulting graphene sheets. Nevertheless, chemically exfoliated graphene nanosheet provides an ideal single-atom-thick substrate for growth of functional nanomaterials to render them electrochemically active and electrically conductive properties due to many oxygen functional groups on the surface of graphene nanosheets. In addition, it can readily adding the other groups to graphene oxide nanosheets using various chemical reactions that provides for either covalent or non-covalent attachment to the resulting chemically modified graphenes. Such approaches, which add functionality to groups that are already present on the graphene oxide, render graphene oxide a more versatile precursor for a wide range of applications. In this study, we synthesized diverse graphene-based nanocomposites by chemical functionalization and demonstrated for energy storage and conversion systems with enhanced electrochemical performance.ope