Issue 6, 2024

Ice crystal guided folding of graphene oxides in a confined space: a facile approach to 1D functional graphene structures

Abstract

The controlled conformational changes of planar graphene nanosheets are of great importance to the realization of their practical applications. Despite substantial effort in the area, the controlled folding of two-dimensional (2D) graphene sheets into one-dimensional (1D) structures still remains a significant challenge. Here, for the first time, we report an ice crystal guided folding strategy to fabricate 1D folded graphene nanobelts (FGBs), where the formation and growth of ice crystals in a confined space function to guide the folding of 2D graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets into 1D nanobelts (i.e. folded graphene oxide belts, FGOBs), which were subsequently converted to FGBs after annealing. Thin aqueous GO containing films were obtained by blowing air through a GO dispersion in the presence of a surfactant, polyoxypropylenediamine (D400), resulting in a foam containing uniform air bubbles. Subsequent shock cooling of the foam using liquid nitrogen resulted in the facile fabrication of FGOBs. This technique provides a general approach to encapsulate catalytic nanomaterials such as Fe3O4 nanorods, TiO2 and Co3O4 nanoparticles into the folded graphene structure for practical applications such as Li-ion batteries.

Graphical abstract: Ice crystal guided folding of graphene oxides in a confined space: a facile approach to 1D functional graphene structures

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
12 Nov 2023
Accepted
27 Jan 2024
First published
02 Feb 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2024,6, 1643-1647

Ice crystal guided folding of graphene oxides in a confined space: a facile approach to 1D functional graphene structures

W. Wan, Z. Zhao, S. Liu, X. Hao, T. C. Hughes and J. Qiu, Nanoscale Adv., 2024, 6, 1643 DOI: 10.1039/D3NA00995E

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