Fabrication of carbon nanorods and graphene nanoribbons from a metal–organic framework

Abstract

One- and two-dimensional carbon nanomaterials are attracting considerable attention because of their extraordinary electrical, mechanical and thermal properties, which could lead to a range of important potential applications. Synthetic processes associated with making these materials can be quite complex and also consume large amounts of energy, so a major challenge is to develop simple and efficient methods to produce them. Here, we present a self-templated, catalyst-free strategy for the synthesis of one-dimensional carbon nanorods by morphology-preserved thermal transformation of rod-shaped metal-organic frameworks. The as-synthesized non-hollow (solid) carbon nanorods can be transformed into two- to six-layered graphene nanoribbons through sonochemical treatment followed by chemical activation. The performance of these metal-organic framework-derived carbon nanorods and graphene nanoribbons in supercapacitor electrodes demonstrates that this synthetic approach can produce functionally useful materials. Moreover, this approach is readily scalable and could be used to produce carbon nanorods and graphene nanoribbons on industrial levels.

Surfactant-assisted ZnO processing as a versatile route to ZIF composites and hollow architectures with enhanced dye adsorption

“…We also note that ammonia etching of Prussian Blue crystals followed by annealing leads to well-defined hollow nanocages of a mixed oxide with improved electrocatalytic properties 34 , which could indicate that MOF-based cage architectures could be further transformed or act as templates for a range of nanomaterials or carbons with enhanced properties arising from their well-defined morphology. 35 The recovery of dyes from aqueous solution is an important goal as many are toxic compounds that make their way into wastewater flows 36 . Adsorption using activated carbon 37 , oxides 38 and sustainable materials derived from waste 36 have all been investigated for this purpose, including a number of MOFs 39 .…”

Design of 3D Graphene‐Oxide Spheres and Their Derived Hierarchical Porous Structures for High Performance Supercapacitors

“…[5,6] A wide spectrum of solids have been investigated including metaloxide/hydroxide complexes, supported metallic adducts of oxides, nitrides, phosphides, and sulphides, and inorganic porous structures of polymers, metalorganic frameworks (MOFs), biomass, and the family of carbon nanostructures. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Porous structures with heteroatom dopants and implanted metal-complexes are highly desirable, due to their superior capability for tuning ion accessible porosity, surface chemistry, and chemical stability. [14] The best examples are carbon based-nanostructures, which are also highly abundant and can be readily synthesized and scaled up.…”

Electrospinning for nano- to mesoscale photonic structures

“…The π-π conjugated morphology [118,119] of ONWs [120] coupled with established charge transport according to the molecular packing orientation [121,122] provides favorable emergent properties for electronic devices and highly efficient energy harvesting devices with extremely high aspect ratio and large surface area-to-volume ratio [123][124][125]. Solid, 1D organic nanorods (ONRs) with moderate aspect ratio and high surface area have provided good performance for supercapacitor electrodes [86] and greatly improved photostability for biological imaging applications [126]. Graphene plasmonics [127][128][129][130] have provided gate tunability [131,132], and the momentum mismatch between incident waves and plasmons can be overcome through the fabrication of graphene nanostructures such as nanoribbons [133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141].…”