Huibo Shao

An all-cotton-derived, arbitrarily foldable, high-rate, electrochemical supercapacitor.

The pure natural cotton provides a low-cost material platform for the facile assembly of all-cotton-derived electrochemical supercapacitors (allC-ECs) with a remarkable character of arbitrary foldability and high response rate, which can be bent, rolled-up, and fully folded without loss of high-rate (<50 ms) capacitive performance.

A powerful approach to functional graphene hybrids for high performance energy-related applications

Pore-rich graphene networks hold great promise as advanced supporting materials of metals and metal oxides for high electrochemical performance. In this work, a dual substrate-assisted reduction and assembly (DSARA) process has been devised and demonstrated as a general approach for the spontaneous reduction of graphene oxide, well-organized assembly of reduced graphene oxide into three-dimensional porous networks, and simultaneous functionalization of graphenes with metal-based nanocomponents on demand, including metals, metal oxides, metal/metal oxide hybrids or alloys. The newly designed process avoids the use of toxic reducing agents, multiple steps, and long reaction times, and offers a facile but powerful pathway to greatly enhance the merits of using pristine graphenes in energy-related applications such as lithium ion batteries, fuel cells, photoelectric conversion devices, and so on. Specifically, as an anode material in a lithium ion battery (LIB), the DSARA-produced RGO decorated with NiO/Ni nanohybrids presents a record capacity with a high charge–discharge rate compared to those reported so far for Ni based materials. PdPt alloy nanoparticles on 3D RGO generated by DSARA exhibits a highly efficient catalytic performance for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells.

Spontaneous, Straightforward Fabrication of Partially Reduced Graphene Oxide–Polypyrrole Composite Films for Versatile Actuators

A facile one-step approach has been developed to fabricate partially reduced graphene oxide-polypyrrole (prGO-PPy) film via self-oxidation-reduction strategy, in which graphene oxide acts as the oxidant to polymerize pyrrole into PPy leading to the spontaneous partial reduction of GO and cross-linking between prGO and PPy via π-π interaction. With the convenient preparation method, a well controlled designed asymmetric actuator based on GO (or G)/prGO-PPy film with excellent humidity and electrochemical responses has been achieved for versatile stimulated actuations that will also play essential roles in advanced actuators for many important intelligent applications.

Uniquely Arranged Graphene‐on‐Graphene Structure as a Binder‐Free Anode for High‐Performance Lithium‐Ion Batteries

3D graphene interconnected frameworks homogeneously connected with a few-layer graphene film (3DG/FLG) constitute a novel hierarchical hybrid structure for anodes in lithium-ion batteries. The pore-rich 3D graphene network is favorable for Li(+) diffusion and electron transport, and the FLG is a non-metallic current collector that effectively collects/transports charge carriers from/to the 3D graphene network and provides an excellent scaffold to support the 3DG.

Versatile Graphene Oxide Putty‐Like Material

Versatile graphene oxide putty-like material (GOP) with excellent processability is developed by mediating a graphene oxide suspension with aniline. Arbitrarily predesigned architectures on both microscopic and macroscopic scales can be molded easily. GOP cannot only be used as starting material for direct 3D printing of particular configurations, but also can be tailored into the patterned structures on various substrates for large-scale production of device arrays.

Thin-film voltammetry and its analytical applications: a review.

Electrochemical reactions at the interfaces of immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES) are of fundamental importance in the fields of chemical, biological and pharmaceutical sciences. Four-electrode cell setup, scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) and thin-film voltammetry are the three most frequently used methods for studying the electrochemical processes at these interfaces. The principle, experimental design, advantages and challenges of the three methods are described and compared. The thin-film voltammetry is highlighted for its simplicity in experimental operation and kinetic data analysis. Its versatile analytical applications are discussed in detail, including the study of redox properties of hydrophobic compounds, evaluation of interfacial electron transfer kinetics, synthesis of nanoparticles/nanostructures, and illustration of cross-membrane ion transport phenomena.

Electric power generation via asymmetric moisturizing of graphene oxide for flexible, printable and portable electronics

Flexible power supplies that can harvest power from an ambient environment are of considerable interest for future portable electronics. However, the complex structure and costly functional material of current power generators hinder their further development and practical application. Here we demonstrate flexible, all-printable graphene oxide (GO) functionalized paper as a moisture-electric power generator with an induced voltage of up to 2 V. Such high voltage is achieved by asymmetric moisturizing of GO, which enables directional ion migration across the GO. This work demonstrates a low-cost, scalable, lightweight and bendable power generator, opening up new possibilities for significantly expanding the application domain of graphene and reducing the cost of portable electronics.