Synthesis of ultrasmall metal-organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles has been widely recognized as a promising route to greatly enhance their properties but remains a considerable challenge. Herein, we report one facile and effective spatially confined thermal pulverization strategy to successfully transform bulk Co-MOF particles into sub-5 nm nanocrystals encapsulated within N-doped carbon/graphene (NC/G) by using conducting polymer coated Co-MOFs/graphene oxide as precursors. This strategy involves a feasible mechanism: calcination of Co-MOFs at proper temperature in air induces the partial thermal collapse/distortion of the framework, while the uniform coating of a conducting polymer can significantly improve the decomposition temperature and maintain the component stability of Co-MOFs, thus leading to the pulverization of bulk Co-MOF particles into ultrasmall nanocrystals without oxidation. The pulverization of Co-MOFs significantly increases the contact area between Co-MOFs with electrolyte and shortens the electron and ion transport pathway. Therefore, the sub-5 nm ultrasmall MOF nanocrystals-based composites deliver an ultrahigh reversible capacity (1301 mAh g at 0.1 A g), extraordinary rate performance (494 mAh g at 40 A g), and outstanding cycling stability (98.6% capacity retention at 10 A g after 2000 cycles), which is the best performance achieved in all reported MOF-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

Three-dimensional graphene encapsulated core–shell FeS@carbon nanocomposite have been fabricated based on spatially confined phase separation of MOF and then employed as a flexible high-performance anode for sodium-ion batteries.

Cyanide is an extreme hazard and extensively found in the wastes of refinery, coke plant, and metal plating industries. A simple, fast, cost-effective, room-temperature wet chemical route, based on cyclohexylamine, for synthesizing zinc oxide nanoparticles in aqueous and enthanolic media was established and tested for the photodegradation of cyanide ions. Particles of polyhedra morphology were obtained for zinc oxide, prepared in ethanol (ZnOE), while spherical and some chunky particles were observed for zinc oxide, prepared in water (ZnOW). The morphology was crucial in enhancing the cyanide ion photocatalytic degradation efficiency of ZnOE by a factor of 1.5 in comparison to the efficiency of ZnOW at an equivalent concentration of 0.02 wt.% ZnO. Increasing the concentration wt.% of ZnOE from 0.01 to 0.09 led to an increase in the photocatalytic degradation efficiency from 85% to almost 100% after 180 min and a doubling of the first-order rate constant (k).

An ultrafast microwave-assisted thermal conversion route is employed to tune the heterostructure of FeNiP/graphene composites for OER and HER activity enhancement.

A facile and versatile microwave‐assisted and shell‐confined Kirkendall diffusion strategy is used to fabricate ultrasmall hollow nanoparticles by modulating the growth and thermal conversion of metal–organic framework (MOF) nanocrystals on graphene. This method involves that the adsorption of microwave by graphene creates a high‐energy environment in a short time to decompose the in situ grown MOF nanocrystals into well‐dispersed uniform core–shell nanoparticles with ultrasmall size. Upon a shell‐confined Kirkendall diffusion process, hollow nanoparticles of multi‐metal oxides, phosphides, and sulfides with the diameter below 20 nm and shell thickness below 3 nm can be obtained for the first time. Ultrasmall hollow nanostructures such as Fe2O3 can promote much faster charge transport and expose more active sites as well as migrate the volume change stress more efficiently than the solid and large hollow counterparts, thus demonstrating remarkable lithium‐ion storage performance.