Graphene-based materials for energy applications

Accelerating global energy consumption makes the development of clean and renewable alternative energy sources indispensable. Nanotechnology opens up new frontiers in materials science and engineering to meet this energy challenge by creating new materials, particularly carbon nanomaterials, for efficient energy conversion and storage. Since the Nobel Prize winning research on graphene by Geim and Novoselov, considerable efforts have been made to exploit graphene as an energy material, and tremendous progress has been achieved in developing high-performance devices for energy conversion and energy storage. This article reviews recent progress in the research and development of graphene materials for advanced energy-conversion devices, including solar cells and fuel cells, and energy-storage devices, including supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries, and discusses some challenges in this exciting field.