Manipulating microstructures and electrical properties of carbon fiber/reduced graphene oxide/nickel composite textiles with electrochemical deposition techniques

Since graphene and their composites play significant roles in the catalysts, energy storage, electronics and other fields, where electron transport is highly critical, here, we introduce reduced graphene oxide (RGO) interfaces in the carbon fiber (CF) networks for preparing a novel lightweight carbon fiber/reduced graphene oxide/nickel (CF-RGO-Ni) composite textile. Upon the charaterizations on the microscopic morphologies, electrical and magnetic properties, and density, the presence of RGO nanosheets and nickel nanoparticles would substantially influence the related physical properties in the resulting composite textiles. Furthermore, the key parameters, including RGO loading, deposition time, current density and annealing temperature of carbon matrices, have been studied to understand their effects on the electrochemical deposition of nickel nanoparticles. Implication of the results suggests that the RGO interface is a unique medium for essentially promoting the electrochemical deposition kinetics and active sites for growing nickel nanoparticles, which indicates a universal approach for preparing advanced lightweight composites with the presence of graphene naonstructures.