Lightweight Nanofiber-Reinforced Pyrrole-Reduced Graphene Oxide Aerogel for Pressure Sensor and Oil/Water Separation Material

The mechanical brittleness of graphene aerogel becomes the main defect that restrains their multifunctional application due to the strong pi-pi stacking and Van der Waals forces between graphene nanosheets. Here, a novel and simple 1D nanofiber-reinforced 2D pyrrole-reduced graphene oxide (GO) to construct a 3D graphene aerogel (GA) is developed. The pyrrole effectively reduces GO to graphene and the in situ polymerized polypyrrole (PPy) can improve the conductivity of GA. Benefiting from the synergistic reinforcement of cellulose acetate (CA) electrospun nanofiber and crosslinker PPy on the graphene framework, the lightweight GA exhibits satisfactory mechanical properties. The assembled flexible piezoresistive sensor shows a high sensitivity of 32.39 kPa-1 and a wide detection range of up to 65.3 kPa, which can be able to withstand more than 10 000 loading-unloading cycles. It has a broad application prospect in human motion and health signal monitoring as a high-performance wearable pressure sensor. Particularly, the porous GA is also proved to be a high-efficiency oil/water separation material with a strong adsorption capacity (56.9-115.2 g g-1) for various oils and organic solvents. 3D porous and conductive graphene aerogel is constructed by using 1D nanofiber to reinforce 2D pyrrole-reduced GO. The synergistic effect of nanofiber and PPy on rGO nanosheet endows it with satisfactory mechanical properties. Its assembled high-performance piezoresistive sensor has a broad application prospect in wearable devices. In addition, the hydrophobized graphene aerogel is also proved to be a high-efficiency oil/water separation material.image