Chemists Create 3-D Printed Graphene Foam

Scanning electron microscope (left) and transmission electron microscope (right) images of 3-D printed graphene foam. (Source: Yilun Li/Rice University)

Researchers from Rice University and Tianjin University in China have successfully printed graphene foam via 3-D laser printing. The research was published June 13 in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano.

The work could result in industrially useful quantities of bulk graphene, an ultrastrong, conductive nanomaterial consisting of a 2-D sheet of pure carbon. Researchers have struggled to efficiently produce the bulk 3-D graphene necessary for widespread industrial application.

“This study is a first of its kind,” said James Tour, Rice chemist and co-corresponding author of the paper. “We have shown how to make 3-D graphene foams from nongraphene starting materials, and the method lends itself to being scaled to graphene foams for additive manufacturing applications with pore-size control.”

Rice researchers at Tour’s lab began using lasers, powdered sugar and nickel to 3-D print graphene foam in late 2016. Earlier this year, they developed a “3-D rebar graphene” foam reinforced with carbon nanotubes. The rebar graphene could retain its shape while supporting 3,000 times its own weight, but producing it required a 1,000-degree-Celsius chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process and nearly three hours of heating and cooling.

“This simple and efficient method does away with the need for both cold-press molds and high-temperature CVD treatment,” said co-lead author Junwei Sha. “We should also be able to use this process to produce specific types of graphene foam like 3-D printed rebar graphene as well as both nitrogen- and sulfur-doped graphene foam by changing the precursor powders.”