Graphene for energy

Graphene in energy storage and conversion in six panels: activated graphene with nanometre pores, laser-scribed graphene from a DVD drive, micro-supercapacitors written on one disc, nitrogen-doped graphene for oxygen reduction against platinum, and graphene/silicon Schottky solar cells.

1. Activated graphene: Chemical activation of exfoliated graphite oxide gave a continuous 3D network of highly curved, atom-thick walls with pores mostly 0.6 to 5 nm wide and a BET surface area of up to 3100 m²/g (Zhu et al. 2011). 2. Laser-scribed graphene: A LightScribe DVD drive reduces graphite-oxide films to graphene that conducts 1738 S/m and has 1520 m²/g of surface, usable as electrodes with no binder or current collector (El-Kady et al. 2012); the drive’s 780 nm laser writes with a spot of about 20 µm (Namdar et al. 2022). 3. Micro-supercapacitors: More than 100 micro-supercapacitors written on a single disc in 30 min or less; on flexible substrates about 200 W cm⁻³ (El-Kady & Kaner 2013). 4. N-doped graphene: Carbon atoms next to nitrogen favour the adsorption and activation of O₂ (Chen et al. 2015). 5. Against platinum: N-graphene made by CVD of methane with ammonia reduces oxygen by the four-electron pathway in alkaline fuel cells, with much better activity, long-term stability and crossover tolerance than platinum (Qu et al. 2010). 6. Graphene/Si solar cells: Graphene/n-Si Schottky cells were first reported in 2010 (Li et al. 2010); about 20 Å of Al₂O₃ between graphene and Si raised the best cell from 7.2 % to 8.7 % (Alnuaimi et al. 2018).

Starting materials: Exfoliated graphite oxide, graphite-oxide films, CVD graphene on n-Si. Product: Porous electrodes, micro-supercapacitors, ORR catalysts and solar cells.

Zhu et al., “Carbon-based supercapacitors produced by activation of graphene”, Science 2011 (doi:10.1126/science.1200770); El-Kady et al., “Laser scribing of high-performance and flexible graphene-based electrochemical capacitors”, Science 2012 (doi:10.1126/science.1216744); El-Kady & Kaner, “Scalable fabrication of high-power graphene micro-supercapacitors for flexible and on-chip energy storage”, Nat. Commun. 2013 (doi:10.1038/ncomms2446); Qu et al., “Nitrogen-doped graphene as efficient metal-free electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction in fuel cells”, ACS Nano 2010 (doi:10.1021/nn901850u); Alnuaimi et al., “Interface engineering of graphene–silicon Schottky junction solar cells with an Al₂O₃ interfacial layer grown by atomic layer deposition”, RSC Adv. 2018 (doi:10.1039/c7ra13443f); Wu et al., “Creating pores on graphene platelets by low-temperature KOH activation for enhanced electrochemical performance”, Small 2016 (doi:10.1002/smll.201503855); Namdar, Ghasemi & Sanaee, “Plasma-assisted three-dimensional lightscribe graphene as high-performance supercapacitors”, Sci. Rep. 2022 (doi:10.1038/s41598-022-08315-9); Chen et al., “Nitrogen-doped graphene-supported transition-metals carbide electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction”, Sci. Rep. 2015 (doi:10.1038/srep10389); Li et al., “Graphene-on-silicon Schottky junction solar cells”, Adv. Mater. 2010 (doi:10.1002/adma.200904383); Miao et al., “High efficiency graphene solar cells by chemical doping”, Nano Lett. 2012 (doi:10.1021/nl204414u).

Yes. Open it in the LabCanvas editor: all 45 layers are editable, including 6 generated objects (structures, plots, equipment) with their own settings. Change the text, colours and layout, then export PNG, TIFF, SVG or PDF.

Not to view it here. To open and edit it, sign in to LabCanvas or create a free account (the free plan keeps up to 3 designs). Downloading the figure is part of LabCanvas Pro (US$19 a month or US$199 a year).