Electrochemical Energy Storage with Graphene-Enabled Materials

石墨烯是一种单原子厚的碳原子片，排列在蜂窝状晶格中。自2004年石墨烯的实验分离和初始表征以来，石墨烯的特殊物理性质引起了人们的极大兴趣，特别是其固有的高表面积和独特的电子性质，如通过其高导电性所表现的那样。在这种材料的无数应用中，利用超级电容器或电池进行电化学储能是最突出的应用之一。减少国家乃至全球能源供应的碳化是一个目标，其驱动因素是不断上涨的化石燃料价格以及对空气污染和人为气候变化的担忧。为了实现这种去碳化，更多地利用“可再生”能源，需要新的储存和转换能源的方法。这种一般背景，沿着个人电子设备（移动的电话、膝上型电脑）的使用的广泛增加，已经驱动了对电化学（基于电池和超级电容器的）能量存储的兴趣和发展的巨大更新，这是该项目的技术动机。具有讽刺意味的是，这种（潜在的）脱碳能量储存高度依赖于碳作为组成储存材料。超级电容器基于在高表面积电极处形成的双电层内存储电能，而某些类型的电池依赖于碳，作为电极之一或作为用于完成电极电路的导电添加剂。然而，在将石墨烯纳入这些储能设备的过程中，存在相当大的挑战：在石墨烯和能量存储的大量近期工作中，明显存在两个具体问题：（a）“石墨烯”通常质量差且尺寸可变，以及（B）通常仅进行最小的努力来控制所得器件中石墨烯的结构。因此，我们仍然离电池和超级电容器电极中石墨烯的常规结合还有一段距离，无论是作为固定或导电的复合材料，还是作为主要电极材料。该提案的目标是通过迭代设计，制造和测试石墨烯电池和超级电容器来弥补这些缺陷。

Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. The exceptional physical properties of graphene have attracted enormous interest since its experimental isolation and initial characterisation in 2004, notably its intrinsically high surface area and its unique electronic properties, as manifested by through its high conductivity. Amongst the myriad applications foreseen for this material, exploitation in electrochemical energy storage with supercapacitors or batteries ranks as one of the most prominent. De-carbonising the national, and indeed global, energy supply is a goal driven by rising fossil fuel prices and concerns over air pollution and anthropogenic climate change. For such de-carbonisation to make greater use of "renewable" energy sources requires new methods of storing and converting that energy. This general background, along with the widespread increase in usage of personal electronic apparatus (mobile phones, lap-tops) has driven an enormous renewal of interest and development of electrochemical (battery and supercapacitor based) energy storage, which is the technological motivation for this project. Ironically, such (potentially) de-carbonised energy stores are highly dependent on carbon as a constituent storage material. Supercapacitors are based on the storage of electrical energy within the electrical double-layer formed at high surface area electrodes, whereas certain types of battery are dependent on carbon, either as one of the electrodes or as a conducting additive used to complete the circuit to the electrodes.There are considerable challenges to be addressed en route to incorporating graphene into these energy storage devices however: two specific problems, apparent in much of the vast body of recent work on graphene and energy storage, are: (a) the "graphene" is generally of poor quality and variable dimensions, and (b) frequently only minimal effort is made to control the architecture of the graphene in the resultant device. Consequently, we are still some way off the routine incorporation of graphene within battery and supercapacitor electrodes, as either composites for immobilisation or conductivity, or as primary electrode materials. The goal of this proposal is to remedy these deficiencies by iteratively designing, manufacturing and testing graphene-based batteries and supercapacitors.