Recent development of graphene-based composite for multifunctional applications: energy, environmental and biomedical sciences

Abstract

The unique two-dimensional structure of graphene containing large surface area, high conductivity, and good physicochemical stability brought a new era in science and technology for scientists and researchers. The intent of this review is to focus on advanced applications of graphene and its related composites in a variety of fields. Starting with a brief introduction of graphene, the review summarizes the major concerns associated with different synthesis methods. Numerous top-down and bottom-up approaches have been developed for reasonable graphene synthesis. Effects of the number of layers on the performance of graphene were also identified as another key area of research. Different techniques for characterization are used to determine the number of layers, thickness and quality of graphene. Graphene properties such as high electrical and thermal conductivity, high optical, excellent mechanical strength, etc., have been summarized. Also, description of features and factors affecting the properties are described in detail. Graphene-based materials have been extensively investigated and discussed especially for energy, environmental and biomedical applications. Graphene and its derivatives are extensively gaining interest as electrode materials for energy storage/conversions. Current developments of energy storage/conversion applications, focusing on supercapacitors, batteries and solar cells, are studied in detail.

Keywords:

• Graphene
• characterization
• properties
• energy
• environmental/biomedical application

Acknowledgements

R. Kumar is thankful to Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), New Delhi, India for providing research fund under Ramanujan award (SB/S2/RJN-159/2017).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.