A solid with a hierarchical tetramodal micro-meso-macro pore size distribution

Ren, Yu; Ma, Zhen; Morris, Russell E.; Liu, Zheng; Jiao, Feng; Dai, Sheng; Bruce, Peter G.

doi:10.1038/ncomms3015

Cited by 94 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…21,44 In addition, controlling the macropores, mesopores and micropores is extremely important for increasing or optimizing the accessibility of gases and ions to the surfaces of a material. From this perspective, the realization and tuning of multimodal pores with a high level of control over their size, distribution, volume and interconnectivity in the present study could provide a general solution for improving the performance of many energy and environmental applications, such as Li-ion batteries, 45 supercapacitors, 46 catalysts 47,48 and gas sensors.…”

Section: Gas-sensing Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trimodally porous SnO2 nanospheres with three-dimensional interconnectivity and size tunability: a one-pot synthetic route and potential application as an extremely sensitive ethanol detector

et al. 2016

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The rapid and effective transfer of chemical reactants to solid surfaces through porous structures is essential for enhancing the performance of nanomaterials for various energy and environmental applications. In this paper, we report a facile one-pot spray pyrolysis method for preparing highly reactant-accessible and porous SnO 2 spheres, which have three-dimensionally interconnected and size-tunable trimodal (microscale, mesoscale and macroscale) pores. For this synthetic method, macroscale polystyrene spheres and mesoscale-diameter, long carbon nanotubes were used as sacrificial templates. The promising potential of the SnO 2 spheres with trimodal pores (sizes ≈3, 20 and 100 nm) was demonstrated by the unprecedentedly high response to several p.p.b. levels of ethanol. Such an ultrahigh response to ethanol is explained with respect to the hierarchical porosity and pore-size-dependent gas diffusion mechanism.

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Section: Gas-sensing Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trimodally porous SnO2 nanospheres with three-dimensional interconnectivity and size tunability: a one-pot synthetic route and potential application as an extremely sensitive ethanol detector

et al. 2016

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“…An ordered mesoporous Li 1.12 Mn 1.88 O 4 spinel and layered LiCoO 2 structures have been made by a hard-templating route with post-lithium treatment, and showed higher rate capabilities and enhanced cyclabilities compared with corresponding bulk solids 108,109 . By contrast, a hierarchical porous cathode was obtained by directly incorporating Li + or K + into the nanocasting precursor solution 110 . Tetramodal α-MnO 2 can store 3 times the capacity compared with that of bimodal α-MnO 2 and 18 times that of the bulk form (FIG.…”

Section: Lithium-ion Batteriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mesoporous materials for energy conversion and storage devices

2016

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At present, more than 80% of the energy consumed globally is derived from non-renewable fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The combustion of these fuels inevitably leads to the emission of CO 2 -a main driver of climate change and other serious environmental effects, including the emission of other dangerous gases. Although mitigating climate change is a multifaceted challenge, one of the pillars of any future low-carbon economy will be a substantially increased dependence on renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources and storage systems. Tremendous progress is being made in developing advanced technologies to meet these challenges. However, to enable the cost-effective, large-scale production of these technologies, further improvement of performance and efficiency is needed. Although unique challenges exist for each technology, the development of functional materials is crucial.Porous solids -in particular, mesoporous solids -are appealing materials in many energy applications owing to their ability to absorb and interact with guest species (including, but not limited to, lithium ions, hydrogen atoms and sulfur molecules) on their outer and inner surfaces, and in the pore spaces 1,2 . According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) definition, porous materials are classified into three categories according to their pore sizes: micro porous (<2 nm), mesoporous (2-50 nm) or macro porous (>50 nm). Since the first report of mesoporous silica in the 1990s 3,4 , the variety of mesoporous materials available has rapidly expanded, encompassing a very broad range of compositions.Mesoporous materials have exceptional properties, including ultrahigh surface areas, large pore volumes, tunable pore sizes and shapes, and also exhibit nanoscale effects in their mesochannels and on their pore walls. These features are particularly advantageous for applications in energy conversion and storage [5][6][7][8][9][10] . In principle, high surface areas should provide a large number of reaction or interaction sites for surface or interface-related processes such as adsorption, separation, catalysis and energy storage; however, a high surface area does not necessarily translate to an improved performance in applications. Large pore volumes have shown promise in the loading of guest species and in the accommodation of the expansion and strain relaxation during repeated electrochemical energy storage processes. Uniform and tunable mesopore channels facilitate the transport of atoms, ions and large molecules through the bulk of the material, thereby increasing the number of active sites with high accessibility and overcoming the size restriction encountered with microporous materials. In addition, there are fascinating nanoconfinement effects in the voids of uniform mesochannels, which are advantageous in catalysis and energy storage. 3D nanometre-sized frameworks can produce extraordinary nanoscale effects (that is, surface and quantum effects) that result in mesoporous materials with u...

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“…Of these oxides, α-MnO 2 , which possesses the typical octahedral molecular sieve structure, is characterized by well-ordered one-dimensional 1 × 1 and 2 × 2 tunnels5, as illustrated in Supplementary Fig. 1.…”

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confidence: 99%

The influence of large cations on the electrochemical properties of tunnel-structured metal oxides

et al. 2016

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Metal oxides with a tunnelled structure are attractive as charge storage materials for rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors, since the tunnels enable fast reversible insertion/extraction of charge carriers (for example, lithium ions). Common synthesis methods can introduce large cations such as potassium, barium and ammonium ions into the tunnels, but how these cations affect charge storage performance is not fully understood. Here, we report the role of tunnel cations in governing the electrochemical properties of electrode materials by focusing on potassium ions in α-MnO2. We show that the presence of cations inside 2 × 2 tunnels of manganese dioxide increases the electronic conductivity, and improves lithium ion diffusivity. In addition, transmission electron microscopy analysis indicates that the tunnels remain intact whether cations are present in the tunnels or not. Our systematic study shows that cation addition to α-MnO2 has a strong beneficial effect on the electrochemical performance of this material.

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A solid with a hierarchical tetramodal micro-meso-macro pore size distribution

Cited by 94 publications

References 58 publications

Trimodally porous SnO2 nanospheres with three-dimensional interconnectivity and size tunability: a one-pot synthetic route and potential application as an extremely sensitive ethanol detector

Trimodally porous SnO2 nanospheres with three-dimensional interconnectivity and size tunability: a one-pot synthetic route and potential application as an extremely sensitive ethanol detector

Mesoporous materials for energy conversion and storage devices

The influence of large cations on the electrochemical properties of tunnel-structured metal oxides

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