VERSATILE COMPOSITE MATERIALS BASED ON GRAPHEME AND POLYANILINE FIBER FOR ENERGY APPLICATIONS

摘要

Graphene, a two-dimensional monolayer of sp2-bonded carbon atoms, has been the focus of much research since its isolation because of the unique transport properties. High conductivity, high surface area, mechanical/chemical stability and good stretchability/fiexibility are the vital reasons behind this rapidly growing research interest and also make graphene a promising material for various applications. To exploit the potential of graphene-based materials for versatile applications, graphene/conducting polymer composite has been prepared to enhance graphene based materials' physical/chemical properties. Among these candidate polymers, polyaniline (PANT) is most often used to be blended with graphene due to its tremendous applicability. Some recent studies have already demonstrated that graphene/PANI composites can be successfully prepared by in situ chemical or electrochemical polymerization. Typically, the monomer (aniline) is mixed with graphene oxide (GO) solution and polymerized at a specific reaction condition. However, the method is difficult to synthesize PANI with high aspect ratio (e.g., nanorod, nanofiber) due to the complicated reaction composition. Furthermore, it is difficult to control the degree of dispersion of GO within the polymer hosts, and the favorable interfacial interactions between these two phases.