Applications of hierarchically structured porous materials from energy storage and conversion, catalysis, photocatalysis, adsorption, separation, and sensing to biomedicine

Abstract

Over the last decade, significant effort has been devoted to the applications of hierarchically structured porous materials owing to their outstanding properties such as high surface area, excellent accessibility to active sites, and enhanced mass transport and diffusion. The hierarchy of porosity, structural, morphological and component levels in these materials is key for their high performance in all kinds of applications. The introduction of hierarchical porosity into materials has led to a significant improvement in the performance of materials. Herein, recent progress in the applications of hierarchically structured porous materials from energy conversion and storage, catalysis, photocatalysis, adsorption, separation, and sensing to biomedicine is reviewed. Their potential future applications are also highlighted. We particularly dwell on the relationship between hierarchically porous structures and properties, with examples of each type of hierarchically structured porous material according to its chemical composition and physical characteristics. The present review aims to open up a new avenue to guide the readers to quickly obtain in-depth knowledge of applications of hierarchically porous materials and to have a good idea about selecting and designing suitable hierarchically porous materials for a specific application. In addition to focusing on the applications of hierarchically porous materials, this comprehensive review could stimulate researchers to synthesize new advanced hierarchically porous solids.

Free‐Standing 3D Electrodes for Electrochemical Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide

“…The porosity of the active electrode is a prerequisite to reach high density of active sites and achieve fast transformation from substrates to products . Free‐standing three‐dimensional (3D) functional electrode based on hierarchically structured porous materials could lead to a significant improvement in the performance due to their outstanding properties including high surface area, excellent accessibility to active sites, and enhanced mass transport and diffusion, which could break through the limitation of traditional thin films and provide fast kinetics. Actually, free‐standing functional electrodes of electrochemical devices share similar problems, and 3D electrodes have been now widely involved in efficient solar cells, supercapacitors, batteries, water splitting, carbon dioxide reduction, et al.…”

Suspension Processing of Microporous Metal-Organic Frameworks: A Scalable Route to High-Quality Adsorbents

“…MOFs have shown promise in a wide range of applications, including gas storage, chemical separations, chemical sensing, catalysis, ion exchange, light harvesting, and even drug delivery (Kreno et al., 2012, Li et al., 2012, Ma and Zhou, 2010, Orellana-Tavra et al., 2015, Wang et al., 2016, Zhu et al., 2017). This wide range of potential applications can be attributed to the ultra-high surface area, tunable pore environments, and high crystallinity of MOFs (Cui et al., 2016, Li and Huo, 2015, Silva et al., 2015, Sun et al., 2016). Although the potential applications of MOFs have been described as endless, commercial and industrial breakthroughs utilizing MOFs have been few and far between.…”

Structuring Metal–Organic Framework Materials into Hierarchically Porous Composites through One‐Pot Fabrication Strategy

“…These materials incorporate multiple levels of porous structures, consisting of interconnected pores of different length scale ranging from micro-(< 2nm) throughm eso-(2-50 nm) to macropores (> 50 nm). [1] Superior to simple porous materials, hierarchically porousm aterials exhibit unique physicochemical properties owingt ot heir high surfacea rea, high porosity, large accessible space,a nd fast mass transport properties, which have high potentiali nv ariousa pplications. [2] To date, substantial efforts have been made to select appropriate mate-rials and develop straightforward methods for the fabrication of hierarchically porous materials.…”