One-pot self-assembly of three-dimensional graphene macroassemblies with porous core and layered shell

The innate character of graphene, defined as the basic unit of sp2carbon materials, provides opportunities for the design and construction of carbon nanostructures with tuned properties. Here, we report a novel three-dimensional graphene macroassembly with a core–shell structure starting from reduced graphene oxides (RGO) by a one-pot self-assembly process under very mild conditions. In the presence of KMnO4, such an assembly process is initiated by low-temperature heating below 100 °C at atmospheric pressure and is totally free from a severe hydrothermal process. Such a core–shell structure is characterized by a porous core and layered membrane shell, and the macro-morphology and infrastructure of the macroassembly are well controllable and tunable. The macroassembly presented here and its self-assembly preparation directly from graphene nanosheets present the first example of the simultaneous formation of a coaxial hybrid infrastructure in a graphene-based nanostructured material, and such a core–shell structured macroassembly shows potential for use in energy storage and other applications.