Corrosion prevention and infrared (IR) stealth are conflicting goals. While graphene nanosheets (GN) provide an excellent physical barrier against corrosive agent diffusion, thus lowering the permeability of anti-corrosion coatings, they have the side-effect of decreasing IR stealth. In this work, the anti-corrosion properties of 100-μm-thick composite epoxy coatings with various concentrations (0.01–1 wt.%) of GN fillers thermally reduced at different temperatures (300 °C, 700 °C, 1100 °C) are first compared. The performance was characterized by potentiodynamic polarization scanning, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, water contact angle and salt spray tests. The corrosion resistance for coatings was found to be optimum at a very low filler concentration (0.05 wt.%). The corrosion current density was 4.57 × 10⁻¹¹ A/cm² for GN reduced at 1100 °C, showing no degradation after 500 h of salt-spray testing: a significant improvement over the anti-corrosion behavior of epoxy coatings. Further, to suppress the high IR thermal signature of GN and epoxy, Al was added to the optimized composite at different concentrations. The increased IR emissivity due to GN was not only eliminated but was in fact reduced relative to the pure epoxy. These optimized coatings of Al-GN-epoxy not only exhibited greatly reduced IR emissivity but also showed no sign of corrosion after 500 h of salt spray test.

We present a facile low-cost method to produce nitrogen-doped holey graphene (N-HGE) and its application to supercapacitors. A composite of N-HGE and activated carbon (AC) was used as the electrode active material in organic-electrolyte supercapacitors, and the performances were evaluated. Melamine was mixed into graphite oxide (GO) as the N source, and an ultra-rapid heating method was used to create numerous holes during the reduction process of GO. X-ray photoelectron spectra confirmed the successful doping with 2.9–4.5 at.% of nitrogen on all samples. Scanning electron micrographs and Raman spectra revealed that a higher heating rate resulted in more holes and defects on the reduced graphene sheets. An extra annealing step at 1000 °C for 1 h was carried out to further eliminate residual oxygen functional groups, which are undesirable in the organic electrolyte system. Compared to the low-heating-rate counterpart (N-GE-15), N-HGE boosted the specific capacity of the supercapacitor by 42 and 22% at current densities of 0.5 and 20 A/g, respectively. The effects of annealing time (0.5, 1, and 2 h) at 1000 °C were also studied. Longer annealing time resulted in higher capacitance values at all current densities due to the minimized oxygen content. Volumetric specific capacitances of 49 and 24 F/cm³ were achieved at current densities of 0.5 and 20 A/g, respectively. For the high-power-density operation at 31,000 W/kg (or 10,000 W/L), an energy density as high as 11 Wh/kg (or 3.5 Wh/L) was achieved. The results indicated that N-HGE not only improved the conductivity of the composite supercapacitors but also accelerated ion transport by way of shortened diffusion paths through the numerous holes all over the graphene sheets.

The performances of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) using holey graphene (HGNS) as the anode material are compared with those using non-holey graphene (GNS). The effects of graphene holes on ion transport are analyzed with a combined experiment/modeling approach involving molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The large aspect ratio of GNS leads to long transport paths for Li ions, and hence a poor rate capability. We demonstrate by both experiments and simulations that the holey structure can effectively improve the rate capability of LIBs by providing shortcuts for Li ion diffusion through the holes in fast charge/discharge processes. The HGNS anode exhibits a high specific capacity of 745 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g (after 80 cycles) and 141 mAh/g at a large current density of 10 A/g, which are higher than the capacity values of the GNS counterpart by 75% and 130%, respectively. MD simulations also reveal the difference in lithium ion transport between GNS and HGNS anodes. The calculations indicate that the HGNS system has a higher diffusion coefficient for lithium ions than the GNS system. In addition, it shows that the holey structure can improve the uniformity and quality of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer, which is important for Li ion conduction across this layer to access the electrode surface. Moreover, quantum chemistry (QC) computations show that ethylene carbonate (EC), a cyclic carbonate electrolyte with five-membered-ring molecules, has the lowest electron binding energy of 1.32 eV and is the most favorable for lithium-ion transport through the SEI layer. A holey structure facilitates uniform dispersion of EC on graphene sheets and thus enhances the Li ion transport kinetics.

With the recognition of the multiple advantages of proton transport membranes that can operate under anhydrous conditions and offer promising opportunities as fuel cells working at high temperatures, a number of such membranes have been developed, but the proton transport mechanism of these materials has not been fully understood. In this work, a theoretical investigation based on molecular dynamics simulations is carried out on a system that is very similar to a real anhydrous proton transport membrane. The location and type of hydrogen bonds have been precisely identified by intermolecular pair correlation functions. Furthermore, analysis of the proton coordination numbers shows that more protons are located in the neighborhood of the oxygen atoms of poly(vinyl phosphonate anion) than in the neighborhood of the nitrogen atoms of pyrazole. The proton conductivity, 1.06 × 10⁻³ Scm⁻¹, is obtained by the self-diffusion coefficient of the protons at 423 K, which is reasonably close to the experimentally measured value, 2 × 10⁻⁴ Scm⁻¹. In addition, the analysis of the proton trajectories provides us with the proton transfer mechanism in an anhydrous membrane: (a) proton hopping between the oxygen atoms of poly(vinyl phosphonate anion) and (b) proton hopping between two pyrazole molecules. Therefore, the network of the hydrogen bond is the pathway to transport protons via the processes of hydrogen bond forming and breaking.