Learning from nature: constructing high performance graphene-based nanocomposites

After billions of years of evolution, natural materials, such as bamboo, bone, and nacre, show unique mechanical properties, due to their intrinsic hierarchical micro/nanoscale architecture and abundant interfacial interactions. This relationship between architecture, interfacial interactions, and mechanical properties of natural materials, supplies the inspiration for constructing high performance lightweight nanocomposites. Graphene’s high tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and electrical conductivity when compared with other nanomaterials make it an ideal building block for constructing high performance bioinspired nanocomposites. Such nanocomposites demonstrate promise for applications in many fields, including aerospace, aeronautics, submarine devices, car, and flexible electronic devices. In this review, we focus on the bioinspired strategy for preparing graphene-based nanocomposites (GBNs), and discuss the various interfacial interactions. Then the synergistic effects from building blocks and interfacial interactions are discussed in detail, along with the resultant GBNs used in the applications of sensors, actuators, supercapacitors, and nanogenerators, are also illustrated. These GBNs include, for example, one-dimensional (1D) fiber, two-dimensional (2D) film, and three-dimensional (3D) bulk nanocomposites. Finally, we provide our perspective on GBNs, and discuss how to efficiently mimic natural materials for creating new multifunctional bioinspired nanocomposites for practical applications in the near future.