Black Titania with Nanoscale Helicity

Abstract

The fabrication of mesoporous black titanium dioxide (TiO 2−x ) with a chiral nematic organization of core-shell nanorods is reported. Chiral templating of TiO 2 nanoparticles onto gelatin-functionalized cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) followed by calcination yields carbonized TiO 2 /CNC helical materials that recover white TiO 2 replicas after carbon removal. The hydrothermal surface reduction of the traditional white TiO 2 by ascorbic acid affords freestanding chiral nematic black TiO 2−x . The black TiO 2−x is a visible light active semiconducting mesoporous structure constructed by chiral nematic crystalline-amorphous TiO 2 core-shell nanorods. The chiral black TiO 2−x nanoparticles supported on mesoporous nanocarbon networks are evaluated as lithium-ion battery anode electrodes. Beyond the current efforts, these black TiO 2−x materials and their composites may be useful in the fields of energy storage and catalysis.

Comparative life cycle assessment of high performance lithium-sulfur battery cathodes

“…This can be seen as an advantage since still a lot of room exists for improvement, not only in terms of electrochemical performance but also in terms of sustainability. For example, renewable materials such as cellulose, the most abundant organic compound on Earth, could potentially be used to fabricate highly porous and electrically conducting cathode materials ( Nguyen et al., 2019a , 2019b ), limiting the use of toxic or scarce elements. Scaling up the manufacturing of Li–S batteries from laboratory-scale to market (into pouch cells for example) should be a priority towards lowering their associated environmental impact as some impact categories such as GWP could be reduced by 13% ( Deng et al., 2017 ).…”

Sol-Gel Biotemplating Route with Cellulose Nanocrystals to Design Photocatalyst Boosting the Hydrogen Generation

“…17 Other alternatives, such as hard templating or impregnation methods, have been proposed to transfer the helical structure into titanium dioxide films. [18][19][20] Despite their efficiency and versatility, all these methods require multistep impregnation/drying to get the final material. Recently, a successful self-assembly of CNC/TiO2 was proposed.…”

Sol-Gel Biotemplating Route with Cellulose Nanocrystals to Design Photocatalyst Boosting the Hydrogen Generation

“…17 Other alternatives, such as hard templating or impregnation methods, have been proposed to transfer the helical structure into titanium dioxide films. [18][19][20] Despite their efficiency and versatility, all these methods require multistep impregnation/drying to get the final material. Recently, a successful self-assembly of CNC/TiO2 was proposed.…”