The development of high-performance electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices, including lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells, is an important step on the road to alternative energy technologies. Although these devices have gained commercial success in recent years, they lack suitable electrodes capable of both high energy density and high power density critical for electrical vehicles. Very recently, graphene, an aromatic monolayer of carbon atoms, not only exhibits superior electrical conductivity and ultrahigh surface area, but also possesses structural flexibility, chemical tolerance, and reassembly properties, holding great promising to be applied in energy storage and conversion devices. However, graphene nanosheets are easily aggregated and re-stacked, resulting in the loss of their unique properties related to the single-layer structure, hampering their applications. Here, we propose to design and fabricate various graphene-containing nanomaterials, including sandwhich-like graphene-based nanosheets, grapene-encapsulating metal and metal oxides, and graphene-backboned architecutres by harnessing the unique feature of graphene for energy storage and conversion. It is found that these graphene-containing nanomaterials with homogenerous dispersion of graphene inside exhibit excellect electrochemcial or electrocatalytic properites.

The development of high-performance electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices, including lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells, is an important step on the road to alternative energy technologies. Although these devices have gained commercial success in recent years, they lack suitable electrodes capable of both high energy density and high power density critical for electrical vehicles. Very recently, graphene, an aromatic monolayer of carbon atoms, not only exhibits superior electrical conductivity and ultrahigh surface area, but also possesses structural flexibility, chemical tolerance, and reassembly properties, holding great promising to be applied in energy storage and conversion devices. However, graphene nanosheets are easily aggregated and re-stacked, resulting in the loss of their unique properties related to the single-layer structure, hampering their applications. Here, we propose to design and fabricate various graphene-containing nanomaterials, including sandwhich-like graphene-based nanosheets, grapene-encapsulating metal and metal oxides, and graphene-backboned architecutres by harnessing the unique feature of graphene for energy storage and conversion. It is found that these graphene-containing nanomaterials with homogenerous dispersion of graphene inside exhibit excellect electrochemcial or electrocatalytic properites.