3D printing of graphene-based aerogels and their applications

Aerogels, as extraordinarily lightweight and porous functional nanomaterials, have garnered significant interest in both academia and industry over the past few decades. Graphene-based aerogels, in particular, stand out due to their excellent conductivity properties, high specific surface area, and efficient adsorption efficiency. Despite these advantageous properties, aerogels face challenges in mechanical durability, complicating their processing, especially in applications requiring complex structures. 3D printing technology holds promise for overcoming these limitations through its capabilities in microscale manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and arbitrary shaping. This review summarizes the advantages of graphene-based aerogels and compares various 3D printing techniques used for aerogel fabrication. Furthermore, it also highlights the energy and environmental applications of 3D-printed graphene and graphene-based composite aerogels, including batteries, supercapacitors, electromagnetic shielding, sensors, etc. The review concludes with an exploration of current challenges and provides an outlook on future developments in the 3D printing of graphene-based aerogels.