Encapsulation of wood capillary channels by electrostatically self-assembled graphene oxide for enhanced conductivity

In recent years, wood with unique porous structure, renewability, low cost and easy processing has attracted increasing attentions, which are frequently used as a structural functional material in energy, environment, catalysis and other applications. For energy storage/conversion, high electrical conductivity of wood is desirable for its feasible application. However, carbonization treatment as commonly used method to improve the conductivity of wood will sacrifice its mechanical strength. Here, reduced graphene oxide as excellent conductive coating has been used to improve electrical conductivity of pristine wood without any carbonization process. After graphene oxide reduction process (RGO), fir wood capillary (wood lumen) skeleton with RGO conductive layers (RGO/Fe3+/wood) endows wood with decent anisotropic conductive. Compared with the untreated wood slice, the conductivity of RGO/Fe3+/wood slice is significantly increased. Besides, RGO/Fe3+/wood has been proved to be an effective substrate of Au catalyst as electrode in electrochemical reduction of CO2, which is superior to commercial carbon paper. Conductive wood slice modified by RGO shows potential application prospects in the fields of good mechanical strength required and flexible wood-derived functional devices.

Automated summary

In recent years, wood has attracted increasing attention as a structural functional material, thanks to its unique porous structure, renewability, low cost, and easy processing. However, carbonization treatment, commonly used to improve wood conductivity, sacrifices its mechanical strength. This study presents a method to improve wood conductivity using reduced graphene oxide as a conductive coating, without the need for carbonization.