(745d) 3D Graphene Inverted Colloidal Crystal Through Vacuum Assisted Assembly

Graphene 3D porous structure is a newly emerging morphology of graphene based materials. This type of material can be advantageous in fields such as energy storage, flexible electronics, and new cushion techniques. Most of the reported graphene 3D structures were made by hydrogel-aerogel transition or template methods, which usually result in unconnected pores with a large size distribution or only nanosize monolayer honeycomb structures.  Here, we demonstrate that a novel graphene 3D structure can be fabricated via polystyrene colloidal crystal templates through vacuum assisted assembly. The organized porous structures afford novel mechanical and thermal properties. In addition, the connected pores in the material plus conductive nature of graphene can be potentially applied in neural cells culture and stimulation. Finally, this material can be good platform to grow various nanowires or nanoparticles to form active sites for catalysis.