Graphene has become a hot topic in the material field due to its excellent physical, chemical and mechanical properties. Much work has been done on the controllable preparation of graphene and its application in chemical energy storage devices.

The research group led by Prof. YAN Xingbin, Laboratory of Clean Energy Chemistry and Materials at Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(LICP),  has prepared the graphene sheets (GNSs)–cotton cloth (CC) composite electrode with the 3D network architecture via a simple ‘‘brush-coating and drying’’ method. The as-made GNSs–CC composite electrode exhibits good electrical conductivity, outstanding flexibility, and strong adhesion between GNSs and cotton fibers. The assembled symmetry supercapacitor exhibits good electrochemical performance not only in 6 M KOH electrolyte, but also in 2 M EMIMBF4/acetonitrile electrolyte. Hopefully, such a rechargeable energy storage device is cheap, easily processed and light-weight, and will have various potential applications such as in portable consumer electronics, computer memory backup systems, hybrid electric vehicles and nextgeneration all-electric vehicles. The work has been published in J. Mater. Chem.(2012, 22, 17245).

In addition, the group has prepared reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) paper under ambient conditions using a simple and effective flame-induced reduction. The r-GO paper exhibits excellent electrochemical properties and the specific capacitance reaches about 212 and 160 F g^-1 in 2 M KOH aqueous solution and 1 M Et₄NBF₄/eacetonitrile solution, respectively. The work has been published in J. Power. Sources.(2013, 222, 52).

The above work has received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Hundred Talents Program of the CAS. 

 Morphology and specific capacitance of GNSs–CC composite fabric. (Image by YAN Xingbin et al.)

 XPS spectra of GO and r-GO papers. (Image by YAN Xingbin etal.)