A Roadmap for Achieving Sustainable Energy Conversion and Storage: Graphene-Based Composites Used Both as an Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reactions and an Electrode Material for a Supercapacitor

Based on its unique features including 2D planar geometry, high specific surface area and electron conductivity, graphene has been intensively studied as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst and supercapacitor material. On the one hand, graphene possesses standalone electrocatalytic activity. It can also provide a good support for combining with other materials to generate graphene-based electrocatalysts, where the catalyst-support structure improves the stability and performance of electrocatalysts for ORR. On the other hand, graphene itself and its derivatives demonstrate a promising electrochemical capability as supercapacitors including electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) and pseudosupercapacitors. A hybrid supercapacitor (HS) is underlined and the advantages are elaborated. Graphene endows many materials that are capable of faradaic redox reactions with an outstanding pseudocapacitance behavior. In addition, the characteristics of graphene-based composite are also utilized in many respects to provide a porous 3D structure, formulate a novel supercapacitor with innovative design, and construct a flexible and tailorable device. In this review, we will present an overview of the use of graphene-based composites for sustainable energy conversion and storage.