One-Pot Synthesis of Hierarchically Structured Ceramic Monoliths with Adjustable Porosity

Abstract

Hierarchically porous oxides are used in a variety of applications within the energy sector (e.g., fuel cells, batteries), biology (e.g., scaffolds, biocatalysis), separations, and catalysis. This article describes a reproducible one-step method for the preparation of metal oxides with controllable hierarchical pore architectures. The preparation is demonstrated for a wide range of materials, specifically silica, titania, zirconia, aluminum titanium oxide, titanium zirconium oxide, and yttrium zirconium oxide monoliths. The samples were prepared by exploiting the polymerization and phase separation of furfuryl alcohol to produce a colloidal dispersion of poly(furfuryl alcohol) particles. The gelation in the sol−gel process occurred after the in situ formation of the template. The removal of the polymer template led to the formation of macropores, whereas inclusion of an amphiphilic block copolymer (Pluronic F127) assisted mesopore formation, either by templating or by stabilizing the inorganic building blocks. The macropore and mesopore morphology could be altered by varying the synthesis conditions. This control over the pore structure was demonstrated in the silica, titania, and titanium zirconium oxide materials.

Hierarchical Nanostructures for Solar Cells

“…More recently, the formation of an organic polymer simultaneous to self-assembly has also been developed as a synthesis route toward macroporous-mesoporous monoliths. 30 The fabrication of hierarchical porous materials has also been extended to obtain films with different pore length scales. 31 Controlling the pore properties is, however, more difficult to achieve in films because the used to obtain hierarchical porous films by combining self-assembly with other templating strategies.…”

A Review on Catalytic Membranes Production and Applications

“…Inorganic membranes have strong advantages in chemical and engineering processes [50]; such as high thermal stability compatible with temperature ranges of (300-800) °C. Accordingly, It can be applied in the food industry and pharmaceutical due to its inertness and biocompatibility.…”

“…They have long life time and easy incorporation of additional phases with catalytic activity in certain processes. But the disadvantages related to the high capital costs or the fact that fabrication process which is still under development continuously vanishes due to the technological achievements in the area [50].…”

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“…Many researchers have tried to mimic these natural nanoporous structures in films with submicron sized nanoparticle aggregates to realize efficient solar cells [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. As shown in Fig.…”