Generalized Domino-Driven Synthesis of Hollow Hybrid Carbon Spheres with Ultrafine Metal Nitrides/Oxides

• Published in: Matter Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 246 - 260
• Main Authors: Xu, Fei, Ding, Baichuan, Qiu, Yuqian, Dong, Renhao, Zhuang, Wanqi, Xu, Xiaosa, Han, Haojie, Yang, Jiaying, Wei, Bingqing, Wang, Hongqiang, Kaskel, Stefan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.07.2020
• Subjects: domino-driven synthesis; encapsulation; fast kinetics; hollow carbon spheres; hollow hybrid materials; interfacial copolymerization; metal nitrides/oxides; potassium-ion storage; ultrafine nanoparticles; encapsulation; interfacial copolymerization; potassium-ion storage; fast kinetics; MAP5: Improvement; hollow hybrid materials; metal nitrides/oxides; domino-driven synthesis; ultrafine nanoparticles; hollow carbon spheres
• ISSN: 2590-2385; 2590-2385
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2020.05.012

Hollow hybrid spheres have been the focus of substantial efforts in areas of energy storage/conversion, especially those with carbon shells. However, current synthesis methods require complicated multistep procedures and show inadequate capability to anchor ultrafine particles with compositional complexity and controllable content, thus far restricting the potentials. Here, we report the preparation of hollow hybrid carbon spheres with encapsulated ultrafine metal nitrides/oxides by one-pot domino-driven synthesis, which involves micelle-interfacial copolymerization for shell formation and spontaneous copolymerization-induced oxometallate condensation inside micelles for encapsulation, followed by controlled pyrolysis. The synthetic platform shows remarkable generality and adjustability, enabling full access to multifarious particles with ultrafine size and tunable content. The reduced dimension of the vanadium nitride nanocluster encapsulated in a hollow carbon cavity facilitates surface-dominated potassium storage with superior capacity and high rate performance. The versatile synthesis and manipulation will expand the scope of hollow hybrid material for widespread applications. [Display omitted] •Hollow hybrid carbon spheres with encapsulated metal nitrides/oxides were synthesized•One-pot domino-driven reactions were developed for hollow hybrid spheres•The proposed strategy shows remarkable generality and adjustability•Unique structure boosts surface-drive potassium storage with superior performance Rational encapsulation of ultrafine particles in hollow carbon spheres have been the subject of considerable attention because of their enormous potential in energy storage/conversion, nanoreactors, confined catalysis, and drug delivery. The synthesis mainly relies on template-based selective etching routes or post impregnation, which involve tedious multistep procedures and are incapable of encapsulating ultrafine particles with compositional complexity. Here, we demonstrate a one-pot domino-driven synthesis to overcome these challenges, whereby spontaneous assembly of hollow shell and encapsulation was realized via micelle-interfacial copolymerization and oxometallate condensation. The ultrafine vanadium nitride in hollow carbon architecture boosts the surface-driven potassium storage with superior performance. The synthetic platform shows remarkable generality and adjustability, enabling full access to multifarious particles with ultrafine sizes for widespread applications. We have demonstrated an ingenious one-pot aqueous domino-driven synthesis toward hollow hybrid spheres with ultrafine metal nitrides/oxides in hollow carbon cavity. The micelle-interfacial copolymerization is applied for shell formation, while the copolymerization-generated H+ spontaneously triggers oxometallate condensation for encapsulation. By regulating the synthetic conditions, the encapsulated metal species can be well tailored with different sizes/contents (nanocluster to several nanometers) and compositions (VN, VO, MoN, WN, bimetal-based nitrides). The ultrafine VN confined in hollow carbon exhibits excellent potassium storage performance.