Reactive Template-Induced Self-Assembly to Ordered Mesoporous Polymeric and Carbonaceous Materials

As an important method for preparing ordered mesoporous polymeric and carbonaceous materials, the organic template directed self-assembly is facing challenges because of the weak noncovalent interactions between the organic templates and the building blocks. Herein we develop a novel reactive template-induced self-assembly procedure for fabrication of ordered mesoporous polymer and carbon materials. In our approach, the aldehyde end-group of reactive F127 template can react with the resol building block to <i>in-situ</i> form a stable covalent bond during the self-assembly process. This is essential for an enhanced interaction between the resol and the template, thus leading to the formation of an ordered body-centered cubic mesostructure. We also show that the ordered mesoporous carbon product exhibits superior capacitive performance, presenting an attractive potential candidate for high performance supercapacitor electrodes

Additional file 1: of Polyaniline-Coated Activated Carbon Aerogel/Sulfur Composite for High-performance Lithium-Sulfur Battery

Supporting information. Figure S1. TEM images of (a) ACA-500-S and the corresponding elemental mapping for (b) carbon, (c) sulfur, (d) oxygen. Figure S2. STEM images of (a) ACA-500-S@PANi and the corresponding elemental mapping for (b) carbon, (c) nitrogen, (d) sulfur, and (d) oxygen. Figure S3. The total XPS spectra of (a) ACA-500-S, (b) C 1s, and (c) S 2p spectra of ACA-500-S. The peaks at 164.0 and 165.2 eV in (c) indicate that the uniformly encapsulated sulfur exists in the form of elemental sulfur. Figure S4. (a) The total XPS spectra and (b) N 1s spectrum of ACA-500-S@PANi. Figure S5. Discharge-charge curves at various rates for (a) ACA-500-S@PANi and (b) ACA-500-S cathodes. Figure S6. Discharge-charge curves recorded at different cycles for (a) ACA-500-S@PANi and (b) ACA-500-S cathodes at 1C. Figure S7. TGA curves of (a) ACA-500-S-70% (black), ACA-500-S@PANi-61% (blue), and ACA-500-S@PANi-55% (red) and (b) ACA-500-S-54% (violet) and ACA-500-S@PANi-45% (olive). Figure S8. (a) Rate performances of ACA-500-S-54% and ACA-500-S@PANi-55% cathodes. Discharge-charge curves at various rates for (b) ACA-500-S@PANi-55% and (c) ACA-500-S-54% cathodes. (d) Cycle performances of ACA-500-S@PANi-45% and ACA-500-S@PANi-61% cathodes at 1C. Table S1. Textual characteristic of ACA-500, ACA-500-S, and ACA-500-S@PANi. Table S2. Summary of cycle stability performances of representative conductive PANi coating for carbon/S cathodes at 1 C rate. (DOCX 980 kb

Water-Dispersible, Responsive, and Carbonizable Hairy Microporous Polymeric Nanospheres

Multifunctionalization of microporous polymers is highly desirable but remains a significant challenge, considering that the current microporous polymers are generally hydrophobic and nonresponsive to different environmental stimuli and difficult to be carbonized without damage of their well-defined nanomorphology. Herein, we demonstrate a facile and versatile method to fabricate water-dispersible, pH/temperature responsive and readily carbonizable hairy microporous polymeric nanospheres based on combination of the hyper-cross-linking chemistry with the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). The hyper-cross-linking creates a highly microporous core, whereas the SI-ATRP provides diverse functionalities by surface grafting of hairy functional blocks. The as-prepared materials present multifunctional properties, including sensitive response to pH/temperature, high adsorption capacity toward adsorbates from aqueous solution, and valuable transformation into well-defined microporous carbon nanospheres because of hybrid of carbonizable core and thermo-decomposable protection shell. We hope this strategy could promote the development of both functional microporous polymers and advanced hairy nanoparticles for multipurpose applications

Mechanochemistry: A Green, Activation-Free and Top-Down Strategy to High-Surface-Area Carbon Materials

Renewable resources (e.g., agricultural byproducts) are widely used in the production of commercial activated carbon, but the activation procedures still have serious drawbacks. Here we develop a green, activation-free, top-down method to prepare high-surface-area carbon materials from agricultural wastes through mechanochemistry. The facile mechanochemical process can smash the monolithic agricultural wastes into tiny microparticles with abundant surfaces and bulk defects, which leads to the generation of well-developed hierarchical porous structures after direct carbonization. The as-obtained carbon materials simultaneously present high surface areas (1771 m² g^–1) and large pore volumes (1.88 cm³ g^–1), and thus demonstrate excellent electrochemical performances as the interlayer for lithium–sulfur batteries and much superior creatinine adsorption capabilities to the medicinal charcoal tablets. These results provide a new direction for fabricating high-surface-area porous materials without any toxic reagents or complicated activation procedures, and can spur promising electrochemical and medical applications