Fabrication of Porous Nanonetwork-Structured Carbons from Well-Defined Cylindrical Molecular Bottlebrushes

Abstract

Atom transfer radical polymerization was utilized to prepare well-defined cylindrical molecular bottlebrushes which were employed as building blocks and transformed into porous nanonetwork-structured carbons (PNSCs) via hypercross-linking chemistry and shape-regulated carbonization. The as-prepared PNSCs exhibited a unique nanomorphologytunable characteristic by simply varying carbonization conditions. Because of their three-dimensional network nanomorphologies with well-developed hierarchical porous structures and conductive carbon framework, the PNSCs demonstrated excellent electrochemical performance in lithium−sulfur batteries.

Emerging Functional Porous Polymeric and Carbonaceous Materials for Environmental Treatment and Energy Storage

“…Inspired by the Nazar's previous research that the classic mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) was employed to encapsulate the element sulfur into its highly ordered pore, [355] various nanostructured carbon materials, e.g., carbon nanotubes, [356][357][358] carbon nanowires/fibers [359][360][361] and solid/hollow carbon spheres [362][363][364][365] have emerged as promising sulfur scaffolds. However, the nonpolar carbon surface offers unsatisfactory chemical affinity toward polar LiPSs species, leading to the inferior accommodation of LiPSs and passive Li 2 S layers, and thus render fast capacity degrading over moderate-term cycling.…”

Synthesis and Characterization of Core‐Shell Bottlebrush Polymers via Controllable Polymerization

“…BBPs with high entanglement molecular weight can quickly self‐assemble into large domain structures, and the self‐assembly of BBPs micelles in selective solvents, as well as identification, imaging or side chain functionalization of drugs, and transportation in aqueous environment [5] . For example, BBPs with well‐defined spherical structures were used to construct porous nanostructured carbons via carbonization of porous functional polymers, and they exhibited excellent electrochemical performance in lithium‐sulfur batteries [6] . However, developing up‐scalable synthesis methods for BBPs with precisely designed structures and advancing the applications of BBPs with certain specific properties remain a challenge.…”

Kinetic comparison of isomeric oligo(ethylene oxide) (meth)acrylates: Aqueous polymerization of oligo(ethylene oxide) methyl ether methacrylate and methyl 2‐(oligo(ethylene oxide) methyl ether)acrylate macromonomers

“…8,9 Densely grafted molecular bottlebrushes have higher molecular weights between entanglements in the melt, leading to lower intrinsic viscosities and lower moduli than conventional polymer chains with small substituents. [10][11][12] These properties enabled use of molecular bottlebrushes as specialty materials, such as lubricants, [13][14][15] nanomaterials, [16][17][18] surfactants, [19][20][21] drug delivery vehicles, [22][23][24] and as supersoft elastomers with tissue-like mechanical properties. [25][26][27][28][29][30] Bottlebrushes can be prepared by grafting small monomers from a multi-functional initiator backbone in Dedicated to Professor Klaus Müllen on the occasion of his 75 th birthday.…”

“…Densely grafted molecular bottlebrushes have higher molecular weights between entanglements in the melt, leading to lower intrinsic viscosities and lower moduli than conventional polymer chains with small substituents 10–12 . These properties enabled use of molecular bottlebrushes as specialty materials, such as lubricants, 13–15 nanomaterials, 16–18 surfactants, 19–21 drug delivery vehicles, 22–24 and as supersoft elastomers with tissue‐like mechanical properties 25–30 …”