215th ECS Meeting, Abstract #1326, © The Electrochemical Society

Graphene Aerogels
1 mm
Jian Wang, Mark W. Ellsworth
Tyco Electronics Technology Group
306 Constitution Dr., Menlo Park, CA 94025

Carbon aerogels possess unique properties useful

to many industrial applications such as thermal or
acoustic insulators, contaminates absorbers, solar energy
collectors, as well as electrochemical applications such as
porous electrodes for batteries, fuel cells, and
supercapacitors.[1] Carbon aerogels, typically prepared by A
sol-gel polymerization of resorcinol-formaldehyde,
followed by supercritical drying and high temperature 1 mm
pyrolysis, are composed of small particles of nearly
spherical shapes. On the other hand, carbon aerogels with
sheet-like nanocarbon structures could be created using
single or multilayered graphene materials. Graphene is a
one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms
that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice.
Graphene has excellent in-plane mechanical, structural,
thermal, and electrical properties similar to carbon
nanotubes. [2,3] We believe that because of the extreme
surface-area-to-volume ratio of graphene sheets, the
graphene aerogels will offer potential improvement over
conventional carbon aerogel technologies for applications B
such as sensors, actuators, energy storage devices, and Figure 1. The optical micrographs and SEM
high performance nanocomposites, etc. images of graphene oxide and graphene aerogels. The
We report here for the first time the preparation of aerogel was made from a GO/water dispersion (2.5
graphene oxide and graphene-based carbon aerogels using mg/ml). The conversion of graphene oxide aerogel to
freeze-drying or critical point drying of graphite oxide graphene aerogel was accomplished by thermal treatment
(GO)/water dispersion. The mechanical properties of the at 300 oC in Ar for 5 hrs.
aerogel are enhanced by adding water-soluble polymers to
the dispersion precursor. The electrical conductivity of the
graphene aerogel is tuned by controlled thermal treatment. 4.0
The typical optical and SEM micrographs of a graphene 3.0
oxide aerogel are shown in Fig. 1A. The graphene oxide 2.0
aerogel appears as a light yellow, foam-like structure with
C urrent (m A )

1.0
good mechanical integrity. The SEM image shows highly 0.0
porous network of interconnected graphene oxide sheets. -1.0
Fig. 1B shows the thermally treated graphene oxide
-2.0
aerogel. The aerogel turns into black color, and the porous
-3.0
carbon network is retained after the thermal treatment.
-4.0
The controlled thermal treatment reduces the graphene
-0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
oxide and restores the conjugated graphene structure. We
Potential (V vs. Ag/AgCl)
have, in fact, observed a nearly six orders of magnitude
increase in the electrical conductivity, indicating the
conversion of graphene oxide aerogel to graphene
aerogel. Figure 2. Cyclic voltammetric i-V curves of a
graphene aerogel electrode. Scan rate: 20 mV/s;
We have conducted preliminary electrochemical electrolyte: 1 M H2SO4 .
studies of graphene aerogel and evaluated the feasibility
of the material for supercapacitor applications. Fig. 2
shows the typical cyclic voltammogram of a graphene References:
aerogel electrode in aqueous acidic electrolyte. The I-V
curves reveal no significant current peaks and are nearly 1. Farmer, J.C., et al, J. Appl. Electrochem., 26,
symmetric with respect to the zero-current line. This 1007-1018 (1996).
indicates the electrode has the characteristic of a capacitor 2. Stankovich, S., et al, Nature, 442, 282-286
with constant charging and discharging rate. The (2006).
calculated specific capacitance is between 70 to 90 F/g.
3. Geim, A. K. and Novoselov, K. S., Nature
Further studies are being conducted to optimize the pore
Mater., 6, 183-191 (2007).
size and spatial distribution of the graphene sheets in the
graphene aerogel materials.

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