A sustainable synthesis alternative for IL-derived N-doped carbons: Bio-based-imidazolium compounds

Abstract

a b s t r a c tHerein we report a facile and scalable synthesis of highly nitrogen-doped porous carbon materials with tunable morphology. Bio-based imidazolium derivatives made from natural amino acids and dioxo-derivatives are employed as precursors, exhibiting an analogous behavior during carbonization to classical ionic liquids. Utilization of systematically controlled salt templating methods yields nitrogen-doped carbon materials with high surface areas of up to 2650 m 2 g À1 and morphology-engineered structures such as monolithic or highly extended, sheet-like carbons. We believe that the presented approach represents an alternative and sustainable platform towards the rational design of carbon materials possessing controlled nanoporosity and functionality.

Mechanochemical synthesis of N-doped porous carbon at room temperature

“…16,17 A growing number of works report N-doping on carbonbased materials by either direct synthesis (e.g. chemical vapour deposition, 18,19 solvothermal, 20 arc-discharge, 21 segregation, 22 condensation reaction, 2 thermal decomposition, [23][24][25] porous polymer precursor approach 26 or post-synthesis approaches (e.g. thermal 27,28 or plasma 3 treatment).…”

Glucose derived ionothermal carbons with tailor-made porosity

“…[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] The more recent research focused on the application of cheap and sustainable carbon sources, such as human hair, water hyacinth, bioimidazoliums, glucose, glucosamine, modified lignin or adenine, but even common organic solvents could be carbonized via hot-injection. [29,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41] However, for some precursors, especially sulfur containing compounds acidic work-up may be required to remove side products such as zinc sulfide or zinc oxide.…”

Domino games: Controlling structure and patterns of carbon nanomaterials in 2D & 3D

“…The high costs of commercial IL were recently overcome by the successful utilization of ''bio-imidazolium zwitterions'', imidazolium compound which are derived from natural amino acids and dioxo-derivatives [19]. Also these precursors can be converted into carbons with outstandingly high surface areas of 2658 m 2 g −1 , containing nitrogen from rationally designed and substituted imidazoles.…”