Graphene Oxide–Polymer Gels

Recently, graphene oxide (GO), as a two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial, has received a surge of attention in the scientific communities due to its unique structure and properties. The GO-based hydrogels have been prepared using different strategies such as acidification or by addition of organic molecules, polymers, or ions as crosslinkers which could crosslink them by covalent and supramolecular interactions such as H-bonding, coordination interactions, and hydrophobic interactions. Similarly, hydrogels based on chemically modified or grafted GO have been also reported. GO-based composites and hydrogels due to their unique features broadly examined for numerous applications such as wastewater treatment, catalysis, biomedical applications, energy storage devices, supercapacitors, and sensors. To meet the demands of such applications, assembling of graphene-based nanolayers into three-dimensional gel-like networks is the main issue that should be considered. This chapter reviews some recent progress on 3D GO-based composites and gels.