Microcellular 3D graphene foam via chemical vapor deposition of electroless plated nickel foam templates

•Thick microcellular 3D graphene foams were fabricated with nickel foam templates.•The graphene foam has a surface-to-volume ratio of 2.5×105 m2 m−3.•The microcellular Ni foam templates are thermally stable for CVD graphene growth.•Microcellular foams have balanced pore size and surface area for energy storage.

Three dimensional (3D) graphene foams have potential applications in high performance energy storage devices such as lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors. In this study, microcellular 3D graphene foams were fabricated via ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) with electroless plated nickel (Ni) foam templates. The microcellular Ni foam templates exhibit sufficient thermal stability for few layer graphene (FLG) growth in the APCVD process, yielding graphene foams with a pore size less than 100 µm, density of 0.0020 g cm−3, and pore wall thickness of about 5 nm. The 3D graphene foam has a cellular morphology with a surface-to-volume ratio of 2.5×105 m2 m−3.