Constructing 3D Interconnected Si/SiO_x/C Nanorings from Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane

Abstract

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) is a family of organic/inorganic hybrid materials with specific molecular symmetry, and shows great potential in the structural design of nanomaterials. Here, a “bottom‐up” strategy is designed to fabricate 3D interconnected Si/SiOx/C nanorings (NRs) via AlCl3‐assisted aluminothermic reduction using dodecaphenyl cage silsesquioxane (T12‐Ph) as the building block. In this process, AlCl3 acts as both a liquid medium for reduction, and significantly as the catalyst to the cross‐linking of phenyl groups in T12‐Ph. The obtained Si/SiOx/C NRs exhibits uniform diameter of ≈165 nm and well distribution of C and Si elements. The unique ring‐like structure of Si/SiOx/C NRs makes it have great application potential in the field of lithium ion batteries. Notably, Si/SiOx/C NRs exhibits superior high‐rate capacity and good cycle stability when used as anode for LIBs. More excitingly, Si/SiOx/C NRs can deliver a high reversible capacity of 517.9 mA h g−1 at ultra‐low temperature of −70 °C, and the capacity retention as high as ≈50% of that at 25 °C. This work not only broadens structural design of carbon‐based nanomaterials but also provides more possibilities for the application of POSS.

Effect of POSS Size on the Porosity and Adsorption Performance of Hybrid Porous Polymers

“…Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS, (R-SiO 1.5 ) n , n = 6, 8, 10, 12, etc. ), are one class of nanosized hybrid nanoblocks of interest in many research areas, including self-organized system-related materials, − polymer nanocomposites, − and inorganic–organic hybrid functional coatings. − With the rigid three-dimensional (3D) configuration, high reactivity, and hybrid nature, , in particular, an intriguing feature of similarity to the secondary building units of zeolites, POSS have also been considered as ideal nanoblocks to develop advanced HPPs. ,− To date, many studies on the geometry effect of aromatic linking units, such as linear-, planar-, tetrahedral-, propeller-, and ladder-like units, ,,− have revealed that the topological combination of POSS with these linking units can tune the porosity and yield various POSS-based porous materials (PPMs) with high performance. However, most studies on PPMs focused on T 8 POSS, and studies on the geometry effect of larger POSS such as T 10 , T 12 , and other compounds are limited (Figure a).…”

Topology-Enabled Simultaneous Enhancement of Mechanical and Healable Properties in Glassy Polymeric Materials Using Larger POSS

“…Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes [POSSs, (R–SiO 1.5 ) n , n = 8, 10, 12, etc. ], similar to hyperbranched molecules, are a group of precise cage-like hybrid nanoparticles with an intrinsic rigid inorganic cage [(SiO 1.5 ) n , T n ] and abundant external free organic groups (R). , Their organic–inorganic hybrid character, high reactivity, and unique structure generally confer excellent mechanical, − thermal, − dielectric, ,, specific self-assembly, − and viscoelastic properties , to POSS-based materials. Recently, with the assistance of reversible bonds, some robust healable materials have been investigated. ,− Nevertheless, all of the reported studies focused on T 8 POSS, the component’s equivalence and topological structure diversity of POSSs (e.g., larger POSS) actually have great potential in engineering the role of topology in structure–property relationships ,,,− yet never been explored for this goal.…”

TiO2/Reduced‐Graphene‐Oxide Double‐Layer‐Coated SiO as High‐Performance Anode for Lithium‐Ion Batteries

“…[11,[13][14][15] In response to these problems, researchers have carried out many effective studies. For example, SiO nanoparticles were prepared to improve the cycling performance of LIBs by reducing their particle sizes, [16,17] SiO was also combined with metals [18] or metal oxides [19,20] to improve the electrical or ionic conductivity to enhance the rate and cycling performance. Carbon coating on the surface of SiO was also developed to buffer the volume expansion while enhancing the electrical conductivity of SiO electrodes.…”