From Graphene to Metal Oxide Nanolamellas: A Phenomenon of Morphology Transmission

Single-layer-graphene and few-layer-graphene structures have been predicted to have high specific surface area. Recent research has focused largely on utilizing the intriguing morphology of graphene as building blocks or substrates, keeping the structure undisturbed. Relatively little attention has been paid to explore the framework substitution of graphene. Here, we report a procedure for morphology transmission from graphene to metal oxide nanolamellas by in situ replacement with the framework of graphene. Our approach involves using graphene sheets as the starting reagent, thereby transmitting the morphology of layered structure from graphene to as-prepared metal oxides. The heteroconfiguration of as-prepared MnO2 could play a role in preventing microstructure degradation in the electrochemical cycling process, bestowing MnO2 nanolamellas an excellent electrochemical stability as a supercapacitor electrode. It is worth mentioning that this methodology is readily adaptable to fabricating MnO2, Co3O4, and Cr2O3 nanowires from single-walled carbon nanotubes and Co3O4 and Cr2O3 nanolamellas from graphene sheets.