Vacancy designed 2D materials for electrodes in energy storage devices.

Vacancies are ubiquitous in nature, usually playing an important role in determining how a material behaves, both physically and chemically. As a consequence, researchers have introduced oxygen, sulphur and other vacancies into bi-dimensional (2D) materials, with the aim of achieving high performance electrodes for electrochemical energy storage. In this article, we focused on the recent advances in vacancy engineering of 2D materials for energy storage applications (supercapacitors and secondary batteries).

growth of laser-induced graphene micro-patterns on arbitrary substrates.

In this article we report a new laser processing method, combining the graphitization of polyimide with simultaneous transfer of the graphene patterns to arbitrary substrates. The synthesis conditions are similar to those normally used for the well-known laser-induced graphene method. The approach is based on the enclosure of polyimide sheets between microscope glass slides.

Microwave as a Tool for Synthesis of Carbon-Based Electrodes for Energy Storage.

This Spotlight on Applications highlights the significant impact of microwave-assisted methods for synthesis and modification of carbon materials with enhanced properties for electrodes in energy storage applications (supercapacitors and batteries). For the past few years, microwave irradiation has been increasingly used for the synthesis of carbon materials with different morphologies using various precursors. Microwave processing exhibits numerous advantages, such as short processing times, high yield, expanded reaction conditions, high reproducibility, and high purity of products.

Direct laser writing of micro-supercapacitors on thick graphite oxide films and their electrochemical properties in different liquid inorganic electrolytes.

In this article we demonstrate a simple approach to fabricate interdigitated in-plane electrodes for flexible micro-supercapacitors (MSCs). A nanosecond ultraviolet laser treatment is used to reduce and pattern the electrodes on thick graphite oxide (GO) freestanding films. These laser-treated regions obtained by direct writing provide the conducting channels for electrons in the capacitors.

A wearable, highly stable, strain and bending sensor based on high aspect ratio graphite nanobelts.

A simple and scalable method was developed for the fabrication of wearable strain and bending sensors, based on high aspect ratio (length/thickness ∼10(3)) graphite nanobelt thin films deposited by a modified Langmuir-Blodgett technique onto flexible polymer substrates. The sensing mechanism is based on the changes in contact resistance between individual nanobelts upon substrate deformation. Very high sensor response stability for more than 5000 strain-release cycles and a device power consumption as low as 1 nW were achieved.