**Porous Graphene Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion Applications**

Kimal Chandula Wasalathilake, Godwin Ayoko and Cheng Yan

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/63554

#### **Abstract**

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194 Recent Advances in Graphene Research

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Porous graphene materials possess a unique structure with interconnected networks, high surface area, and high pore volume. Because of the combination of its remarka‐ ble architecture and intrinsic properties, such as high mechanical strength, excellent electrical conductivity, and good thermal stability, porous graphene has attracted tremendous attention in many fields, such as nanocomposites, lithium batteries, supercapacitors, and dye-sensitized solar cells. This chapter reviews synthesis methods, properties, and several key applications of porous graphene materials.

**Keywords:** porous graphene, synthesis, surface area, Li batteries, supercapacitors

#### **1. Introduction**

Porous materials are generally referred to materials containing pores or voids with different shapes and sizes. These porous structures have demonstrated unique properties and emerged as attractive candidates for a wide range of applications in medicine, catalysis, sensors, adsorbents, and energy storage and conversion [1–10]. Particularly, porous carbon is an exceptional material with a low density and high specific strength. It is also capable of bond‐ ing with other atoms through its sp, sp2 , and sp3 hybrid orbitals. Among various carbon materials, graphene has received enormous attention because of its high surface area (2630 m2 /g), exceptional thermal conductivity (5000 W/m.K), high Young's modulus (1.0 TPa), and chemi‐ cal stability. Studies have shown that it has a high intrinsic carrier mobility of 2 × 105 cm2 /V.s and an excellent electrical conductivity of 106 S/cm at room temperature [11–13]. Graphene is a

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two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of sp2 hybridized carbon atoms and since its discovery in 2004, significant efforts have been put in exploring its potential applications. Various synthe‐ sis methods have been developed to produce graphene including epitaxial growth of gra‐ phene on metal or SiC substrates [14, 15], chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [16–18], chemical reduction[19,20],thermalreduction[21,22],electrochemical synthesis [23,24],andliquidphase exfoliation [25, 26]. However, because of the strong π-π stacking and van der Waals interac‐ tions between graphene sheets, the experimentally obtainable surface area is far below the theoretical value. To overcome this problem, increasing effort has been put to transforming graphene into porous structures to achieve higher surface area [27–29]. Along with the inherent properties of graphene, porous graphene has a clear edge over other porous carbon materials. For example, the excellent electrical conductivity can be used as a perfect current collector for the rapid diffusion of electrons/ions while its high mechanical strength provides mechanical stability to the porous framework. These unique properties make porous graphene a highly promising material for energy storage and conversion applications like lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, supercapacitors, the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), and fuel cells.
