Advanced porous graphene materials: from in-plane pore generation to energy storage applications

Graphene, a two-dimensional carbon sheet with a honeycomb arrangement, has demonstrated promise in energy storage applications owing to its fascinating features, such as a large specific surface area, high conductivity, and excellent mechanical flexibility. However, the slow ion transport kinetics and the reduced active surface area due to the restacking of graphene nanosheets during electrode preparation are still major obstacles in the fabrication of energy storage devices with high power/energy density. To deal with the above-mentioned problems, porosity engineering in graphene sheets (creating holes in graphene sheets) has become a highly efficient and promising approach to enabling porous graphene materials to possess the dual advantages of both graphene and porous materials. This review mainly focuses on the in-plane pore-generating approaches to the preparation of porous graphene materials and the recent research progress in the use of porous graphene materials for largely improving the performance of energy storage devices. Furthermore, their challenges for practical application are also discussed.