Laser induced graphene materials and their use in electronic devices

1. A method of producing a graphene material, wherein the method comprises:

exposing a polymer to a laser source,

wherein the polymer is in the form of a substrate, and

wherein the polymer lacks graphene oxide and graphite oxide; and

wherein the exposing results in formation of graphene, and wherein the graphene is derived from the polymer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposing comprises tuning one or more parameters of the laser source.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more parameters of the laser source are selected from the group consisting of laser wavelength, laser power, laser energy density, laser pulse width, gas environment, gas pressure, gas flow rate, and combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein a wavelength of the laser source is tuned to match an absorbance band of the polymer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer is chosen such that an absorbance band of the polymer matches the excitation wavelength of the laser source.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the laser source is selected from the group consisting of a solid state laser source, a gas phase laser source, an infrared laser source, a CO 2 laser source, a UV laser source, a visible laser source, a fiber laser source, near-field scanning optical microscopy laser source, and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the laser source is a CO 2 laser source.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the laser source has a wavelength ranging from about 20 nm to about 100 μm.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the laser source has a power ranging from about 1 W to about 100 W.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer is in the form of at least one of sheets, films pellets, powders, coupons, blocks, monolithic blocks, composites, fabricated parts, electronic circuit substrates, and combinations thereof.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer is selected from the group consisting of homopolymers, vinyl polymers, block co-polymers, carbonized polymers, aromatic polymers, cyclic polymers, polyimide (PI), polyetherimide (PEI), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), and combinations thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer comprises a doped polymer.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the doped polymer comprises a dopant selected from the group consisting of heteroatoms, metals, metal oxides, metal chalcogenides, metal nanoparticles, metal salts, organic additives, inorganic additives, metal organic compounds, and combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer comprises a boron doped polymer.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposing comprises exposing a surface of a polymer to a laser source, wherein the exposing results in formation of the graphene on the surface of the polymer.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the exposing comprises patterning the surface of the polymer with the graphene.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the graphene becomes embedded with the polymer.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the polymer comprises a first surface and a second surface, wherein the first surface is exposed to the laser source, and wherein the graphene forms on the first surface of the polymer.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first surface and the second surface are exposed to the laser source, and wherein the graphene forms on the first surface and the second surface of the polymer.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first surface and the second surface are on opposite sides of the polymer.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposing results in conversion of the entire polymer to graphene.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the formed graphene material consists essentially of the graphene derived from the polymer.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene is selected from the group consisting of single-layered graphene, multi-layered graphene, double-layered graphene, triple-layered graphene, doped graphene, porous graphene, unfunctionalized graphene, pristine graphene, functionalized graphene, oxidized graphene, turbostratic graphene, graphene coated with metal nanoparticles, metal particles coated with graphene, graphene metal carbides, graphene metal oxides, graphene metal chalcogenides, and combinations thereof.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene comprises porous graphene.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene comprises doped graphene.

26. The method of claim 25 , wherein the doped graphene comprises a dopant selected from the group consisting of heteroatoms, metals, metal oxides, metal nanoparticles, metal chalcogenides, metal salts, organic additives, inorganic additives, and combinations thereof.

27. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene comprises boron-doped graphene.

28. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene has a surface area ranging from about 100 m 2 /g to about 3,000 m 2 /g.

29. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene has a thickness ranging from about 0.3 nm to about 1 cm.

30. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene comprises a polycrystalline lattice.

31. The method of claim 30 , wherein the polycrystalline lattice comprises ring structures selected from the group consisting of hexagons, heptagons, pentagons, and combinations thereof.

32. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of incorporating the graphene material into an electronic device.

33. The method of claim 32 , wherein the electronic device is an energy storage device or an energy generation device.

34. The method of claim 32 , wherein the electronic device is selected from the group consisting of super capacitors, micro supercapacitors, pseudo capacitors, batteries, micro batteries, lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, magnesium-ion batteries, electrodes, conductive electrodes, sensors, photovoltaic devices, electronic circuits, fuel cell devices, thermal management devices, biomedical devices, and combinations thereof.

35. The method of claim 32 , wherein the incorporating comprises stacking a plurality of graphene materials, wherein the stacking results in formation of a vertically stacked electronic device.

36. The method of claim 32 , wherein the incorporating results in formation of at least one of vertically stacked electronic devices, in-plane electronic devices, symmetric electronic devices, asymmetric electronic devices, and combinations thereof.

37. The method of claim 32 , wherein the graphene is utilized as at least one of an electrode, current collector or additive in the electronic device.

38. The method of claim 32 , further comprising a step of associating the electronic device with an electrolyte.

39. The method of claim 38 , wherein the electrolyte is selected from the group consisting of solid state electrolytes, liquid electrolytes, aqueous electrolytes, organic salt electrolytes, ion liquid electrolytes, and combinations thereof.

40. The method of claim 38 , wherein the electrolyte is a solid state electrolyte.

41. The method of claim 32 , wherein the electronic device has a capacitance ranging from about 2 mF/cm 2 to about 1000 mF/cm 2 .

42. The method of claim 32 , wherein the capacitance of the electronic device retains at least 90% of its original value after more than 10,000 cycles.

43. The method of claim 32 , wherein the electronic device has power densities ranging from about 5 mW/cm 2 to about 200 mW/cm 2 .

44. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of separating the formed graphene from the polymer to form an isolated graphene.

45. The method of claim 44 , further comprising a step of incorporating the isolated graphene into an electronic device.