Porous Carbon and Carbon/Metal Oxide Composites by Ice Templating and Subsequent Pyrolysis

Abstract

There are continuously strong interests for the preparation of carbon and carbon composite materials because of their excellent properties and very broad applications. We report here the fabrication of porous carbon and carbon/metal oxide composites via an ice-templating approach and a carbonization process. Porous polymer and polymer/metal−organic framework (MOF) composites, namely poly(4-styrenesulfonate) and UiO-66 nanoparticles, are first prepared via a simple freeze-casting process. The material morphology and loading of MOF particles can be easily adjusted by varying initial suspension compositions during the freeze-casting process. These ice-templated materials are subsequently carbonized under Ar, producing carbon and carbon/ZrO 2 composites with ice-templated macropores and micropores/mesopores. The carbonized materials are evaluated as adsorbents for dye removal from aqueous solution, exhibiting high performance in general for the adsorption of methylene blue, particularly achieving the high adsorption capacity of 96 mg g −1 (10 mg adsorbent/5 cm 3 aqueous dye solution) with the porous carbon material.

From metal–organic framework powders to shaped solids: recent developments and challenges

“…Other works by Fu et al [158,159] include the further pyrolysis of ice-templated MOF/polymers composites to produce hierarchically porous carbon materials. Thus, they formed carbon/ZrO 2 composites upon the carbonization of ice-templated UiO-66/poly(4styrenesulfonate) composites at 800 °C under Ar [159].…”

“…Other works by Fu et al [158,159] include the further pyrolysis of ice-templated MOF/polymers composites to produce hierarchically porous carbon materials. Thus, they formed carbon/ZrO 2 composites upon the carbonization of ice-templated UiO-66/poly(4styrenesulfonate) composites at 800 °C under Ar [159]. Although, a drastic loss in surface area is observed upon pyrolysis (368 m 2 g -1 vs 1034 m 2 g -1 for the parent UiO-66), the newlyformed material presented an interesting hierarchical porosity composed of micropores inherited from the MOF, mesopores generated due to interparticular voids, and macropores generated by the ice-templating process.…”

Synthesis of 2D MoO3−x/N-doped-carbon nanocomposites via in situ carbonization of layered (NH4)Mo3O9–(NH4)2Mo4O13-organic hybrid nanomaterials for exceptionally efficient adsorption and separation of organic dyes

“…The rate of dye adsorption greatly depends on the contact time of the adsorbent and dye solution as well as on the diffusion mechanism. 23,72 To gain insight into the adsorption properties of MB on the MoO 3−x / N-C nanocomposites, the adsorption kinetics experiments were carried out at room temperature (32 °C) at neutral pH with the MB concentration of 100 ppm. As represented in Fig.…”

A New Era of Integrative Ice Frozen Assembly into Multiscale Architecturing of Energy Materials

“…The key advantage of ice frozen assembly is the versatile applicability for the design of energy materials to a wide range of functional nanomaterials used as assembly units or building blocks, such as, nanoparticles, [ 45–49 ] nanotubes, [ 31,50–53 ] nanowires, [ 24,54–61 ] nanofibers, [ 17–19,62,63 ] nanosheets, [ 11,47,48,50,64–71 ] nanoplatelets, [ 72–74 ] and any type of nanomaterial, as long as these can be stably dispersed. Moreover, the types of functional materials include ceramic, [ 75,76 ] metal, [ 33–35,38 ] polymer, [ 77–79 ] carbon, [ 36,80,81 ] and even biological materials. [ 82–84 ] Another advantage is that various alterations to processing conditions lead to drastic changes and controls in the micro and macrostructures of as‐obtained ice templated scaffolds.…”

“…Moreover, the chemical compositions and internal porous structure of electrode materials should be precisely tuned to provoke the synergistic effects of constituents which are not achieved by individual materials. [32][33][34][35][36][37] Despite these desirable properties of hierarchically designed electrodes, the control in the internal porosity, external morphology, and composition of electrode materials remains a considerable challenge due to the limitation of existing synthetic methodologies. Importantly, the fundamental understanding of correlating the energy conversion and storage behaviors of such complex materials with their hierarchical structure and chemistry is…”