Graphene, a two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial composed of single-layer carbon atoms forming a hexagonal honeycomb lattice via sp 2 hybridisation, has attracted extensive worldwide attention since its discovery in 2004. Benefiting from its distinctive atomic structure, graphene exhibits extraordinary physical and chemical properties, such as ultra-high electron mobility, excellent mechanical strength, superior thermal conductivity, and large specific surface area. Nevertheless, the inherent chemical inertness and unsatisfactory dispersibility of pristine graphene severely restrict its practical applications in various fields. Accordingly, the modification of graphene has become a key research direction to address these limitations. This paper systematically reviews the recent research progress of graphene and its modification strategies, mainly including covalent functionalisation, non-covalent functionalisation, and elemental doping. The application advances of modified graphene in energy storage, sensors, composite materials and other high-tech fields are comprehensively summarised. In addition, the existing challenges including mass production, quality stability and cost control, as well as future development trends, are prospected. Studies demonstrate that optimised modification design can effectively improve the performance of graphene-based materials, which hold great promise for wide applications in multidisciplinary areas.
Gong et al. (Fri,) studied this question.