With the rapid development of personal computers and portable electronics, people have to get rid of a lot of unwanted electromagnetic pollution. The development of high performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials is of critical importance to address ever-increasing military and civilian demand. Owing to its high electrical conductivity and flexible 3D structure, graphene sponge has great potential for excellent EMI shielding performance. However, its EMI shielding performance suffers from the material’s poor elasticity and durability. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of a self-assembled graphene/polyurethane sponge composite, synthesized via a two-step hydrothermal method, for EMI shielding. This kind of material exhibits a high specific EMI shielding effectiveness of 969–1578 dB cm² g⁻¹ which is comparable or even superior to traditional graphene/polymer sponges. The excellent EMI shielding performance originates from the superconductivity of graphene and the highly porous structure of the graphene/polyurethane sponge. It is found that the polyurethane sponge works as a robust scaffold for graphene to shape its 3D structure. This work introduces a facile yet efficient two-step hydrothermal approach to prepare a graphene/polyurethane sponge with excellent EMI shielding performance and good durability.

Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) take a leading stand in developing next-generation secondary batteries with an exceptionally high theoretical energy density. However, the insulating nature and undesirable shuttle effect still need to be solved to improve the electrochemical performance. Herein, a freestanding graphene supported N-doped Ti₃C₂T_x MXene@S cathode is successfully synthesized via a straightforward no-slurry method. Due to its unique hierarchical microstructure, the MXene-C/S ternary hybrids with high capacity can effectively adsorb polysulfides and accelerate their conversion. Cooperatively, conductive rGO can ameliorate N-MXene nanosheet' restacking, making the lamellar N-Mxene coated sulfur particles disperse uniformly. The assembled Li–S battery with a freestanding Ti₃C₂T_x@S/graphene electrode provides an initial capacity of 1342.6 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.1C and only experiences a low capacity decay rate of 0.067% per cycle after. Even at a relatively high loading amount of 5 mg cm⁻², the battery can still yield a high specific capacity of 684.9 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.2C, and a capacity retention of 89.3% after 200 cycles.

A high-elastic graphene/polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite with excellent electromechanical properties was fabricated by a facile ice-templated assembly strategy. The resulting PU-reinforced graphene sponges (PGS) not only possess a combination of low density (18 ± 5 mg cm⁻³) and adjustable sensitivity (0.75 to 3.08 kPa⁻¹) but can also withstand large strain without permanent deformation. The pressure-sensitive sensors based on our sponge exhibit a negative piezoresistive effect, and the resistance can change from 5 kΩ to 25 Ω under 99% strain. We have also designed a novel device to investigate the delay ratio and fast piezoresistive response with different loading frequencies. Owing to its rapid response (14 ms), high flexibility and facile fabrication, this graphene strain sensor presents great potential for cost-effective artificial skins, which are urgently needed in soft robotic systems. Moreover, this effective assembly strategy provides a route to fabricating novel functional materials by embedding porous graphene inside another porosint.

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted considerable attention due to their ultra-high specific capacity and energy density. However, there are still problems to be resolved such as poor conductivity of sulfur cathodes and dissolution of polysulfides in organic electrolytes. Herein, a novel ZIF-8-derived nitrogen-doped connected ordered macro–microporous carbon (COM-MPC) was developed by a dual solvent-assisted in situ crystallization method within a face-centered cubic stacking sphere template, which acts as an advanced sulfur host for enhanced Li–S battery performance. Compared with the conventional predominant microporous C-ZIF-8, the unique hierarchical macro–microporous structure with nitrogen doping not only renders polysulfide intermediates enhanced entrapment by confining the effect of micropores and chemisorption of doping N atoms, but also facilitates electrolyte accessibility and efficient ion transport owing to the ordered macroporous structure. Benefitting from this, the COM-MPC@S cathode delivers a high initial specific capacity of 1498.5 mA h g⁻¹ and a reversible specific capacity of 1118.9 mA h g⁻¹. Moreover, the COM-MPC@S cathode exhibits 82.3% of capacity retention within 10th to 50th cycle at 0.5C and a large capacity of 608.5 mA h g⁻¹ after 50 cycles at a higher rate of 1C, and this enhanced cycling stability and rate capability demonstrate great practical application potential in Li–S battery systems.

Herein, a flexible 6 × 6 pressure-sensitive array (based on the PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) porous substrate) was designed. We have developed a facile method to fabricate the porous substrate, by a single-step operation using the sugar-template method. This strategy effectively diminishes the complexity of the preparation process, as well as the device structure. The electrical resistivity of the stretchable array demonstrates the negative piezo resistive coefficient (NPRC) under 0–100 kpa. Moreover, the pressure-sensitive array reveals a high sensitivity and low delay time (<0.5 s) to the applied forces. Therefore, the pressure distribution could be easily recognized by testing its conductivity changes. Besides, these signal data can be collected into the upper computer, with the purpose of tracking and analyzing the azimuth of the applied loading. This cost-effective micro array has a broad application prospect for fabricating the tactile sensor, artificial skin, and human-computer interfaces.