Ordered Bicontinuous Mesoporous Polymeric Semiconductor Photocatalyst

Abstract

Owning triply periodic minimal surfaces and three-dimensional (3D) interconnected pores, bicontinuous porous materials have drawn enormous attention due to their great academic interest and potential applications in many fields including energy and catalysis. However, their synthesis has remained a great challenge. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of a bicontinuous porous organic semiconductor photocatalyst, which involves the preparation of SiO 2 with a shifted double diamond (DD) structure through solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly of a polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer and tetraethyl orthosilicate, followed by SiO 2templated self-condensation of melamine monomers in a vacuum. Strikingly, the resultant DD-structured graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) possesses two sets of 3D continuous mesopores with a mean diameter of 14 nm, which afford a high specific surface area of 131 m 2 g −1 and an optical band gap of 2.8 eV. Being a visible-light-driven photocatalyst, the bicontinuous mesoporous g-CN exhibits high catalytic activity for water splitting to generate H 2 (6831 μmol g −1 h −1 ) with excellent cycling stability. This study provides a protocol for the construction of ordered mesoporous materials containing 3D continuous channels, which holds promise for catalysis applications.

Balance of N-Doping Engineering and Carbon Chemistry to Expose Edge Graphitic N Sites for Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis

“…The high-resolution C 1s XPS spectrum of the BU-derived CN x material can be deconvoluted into three peaks centered at 284.8, 286.2, and 288.3 eV, assigned to CC (C1), −C–NH 2 (C2), and N–CN (C3) in the tri- s -triazine ring, respectively. Meanwhile, the corresponding high-resolution N 1s XPS spectrum exhibited three peaks centered at 398.8, 400.1, and 401.3 eV, assigned to the tri- s -triazine unit (C–NC, N1), the bridging N atoms among three tri- s -triazine units (N–(C) 3 , N2), and the amino groups (C–NH–, N3), respectively . The dominant bonding types of C3, N1, and N2 configurations in BU-derived CN x strongly indicate the graphitic N-bridging tri- s -triazine structure unit in BU-derived CN x , consistent with the structure character in g-C 3 N 4 .…”

Efficient Electrocatalytic Upgrading of Furan-Based Biomass: Key Roles of Two-Dimensional Mesoporous Heterostructure and Ternary Electrolyte

“…Preparation and characterizations of meso-PA/PmPD/GO nanosheets. The meso-PA/PmPD/GO nanosheets were prepared through a block copolymer templated interfacial self-assembly strategy [31][32][33][34][35][36][37] , which employed Pluronic P123 copolymer (poly(ethylene oxide) 20 -block-poly(phenylene oxide) 70 -block-poly(ethylene oxide) 20 , the subscript numbers denote the degrees of polymerization) as the pore-creating template, m-phenylenediamine (mPD) as the monomer, PA as the dopant, and GO of ca. 1 nm thickness as the 2D substrate, respectively (Fig.…”

Bioinspired Materials for Energy Storage

“…Bicontinuous porous materials, featuring the typical triply periodic minimal surfaces and 3D interconnected pores, have shown great potentials for energy and catalysis applications. [45][46][47][48] For example, a bicontinuous mesoporous titania scaffold with a double diamond structure fabricated with the assistance of a cooperative self-assembly synthesis was explored as a promising Li-ion battery material.…”