Martin Pumera and co-workers, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, report the increased capacitance of electrochemically reduced graphene (ER-GO) by employing gold nanospacers (AuNP). The capacitance can be dramatically enhanced, by approximately 35 times to values of around 174 F/g, because these nanospacers prevent the graphene sheets from stacking (see picture, yellow = AuNP, green = purple = ER-GO). Their study showed that by the careful and systematic optimization of nanospacer size and loadings an optimum capacitance can be achieved.

The work has applicability in energy storage devices as the enhanced capacitance value is comparable to those of commercially available mesoporous carbon materials.

• Gold Nanospacers Greatly Enhance the Capacitance of Electrochemically Reduced Graphene,
  L. Buglione, A. Bonanni, A. Ambrosi, M. Pumera,
  ChemPlusChem 2011.
  DOI: 10.1002/cplu.201100016