Architectured graphene and its composites: Manufacturing and structural applications

To explore the full potential of graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial with outstanding physical and mechanical properties, for macroscopic applications, an essential prerequisite is to realize controllable assembly of graphene mono/multi-layers into engineered three-dimensional (3D) micro/macro-architectures with well-defined microstructures, while still possessing intrinsic properties of graphene building block. Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has been envisioned as a competent fabrication process to achieve this goal. Here, we elaborate some representative AM and self-assembly methods to manufacture 3D-architectured graphene and its diversified composites. The challenges and difficulties to formulate printable graphene materials and optimize the manufacturing processes are also discussed to provide guidance for further research. Moreover, the features and advantages of each 3D printing and self-assembly technique related to assembling graphene into 3D architectures are compared and summarized, and thus enable the advance of a broad area of 2D materials-based structural and mechanical-related applications.