Recent Advances in Soft Materials to Build and Functionalize Hard Structures for Electrochemical Energy Storage and In situ Electrochemical Molecular Biosensing

Guo, Chunxian; Li, Chang Ming

doi:10.1002/adfm.201602697

“…Inorganic mesoporous thin films are ideally suited for applications requiring high surface area and good mass and electron transport properties, such as in gas sensors [1,2] , fuel cells [3,4] , Bragg reflectors [5] , permselective membranes [6] , dye-sensitized solar cells [7,8] , batteries [9,10] , supercapacitors [11,12] , enzyme storage [13] , electrochemical biosensing [12,14] , catalysis [15] , etc. In most cases, the interplay between porosity and pore size is crucial for their operation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced structural control of soft-templated mesoporous inorganic thin films by inert processing conditions

Fornerod

¹

,

Álvarez-Fernández

²

,

Skoda

³

et al. 2022

Preprint

3

6

0

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Mesoporous thin films are widely used for applications in need of high surface area and good mass and charge transport properties. A well-established fabrication process involves the supramolecular assembly of organic molecules (e.g. block copolymers, and surfactants) with inorganic materials obtained by sol-gel chemistry. Typically, subsequent calcination in air serves to remove the organic template and reveal the pores. A major challenge for such coatings is the anisotropic shrinkage due to the volume contraction related to solvent evaporation, inorganic condensation, and template removal, affecting the final porosity as well as pore shape, size, arrangement and accessibility. Here, we show that a two-step calcination process, composed of high-temperature treatment in argon followed by air calcination, leads to reduced film contraction and enhanced structural control. Crucially, the formation of a transient carbonaceous scaffold enables the inorganic matrix to fully condense before template removal. The resulting mesoporous films retain a higher porosity as well as larger, more uniform pores with extended hexagonally closed-packed order. Such films present favorable characteristics for a variety of applications, such as improved mass transport of large biomolecules. This is demonstrated for the adsorption and desorption of lysozyme into the mesoporous thin films as an example of enzyme storage.

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“…[ 43 ] More importantly, poor surface chemistry of some materials often leads to failure of fabrication of 2D film devices. [ 44 ] Considering the advantages of mesoporous carbon mentioned above and the surface chemical properties they possess, functional mesoporous carbon‐based films can combine the advantages of both sides.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interfacial Assembly of Functional Mesoporous Carbon‐Based Materials into Films for Batteries and Electrocatalysis

Xu

¹

,

Li

²

,

Xie

³

et al. 2022

Adv Materials Inter

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However, to better integrate those energy sources and applications, proper energy storage and conversion systems are vital. Tremendous efforts have been made to the development of energy systems, mainly including batteries (e.g., lithium batteries, fuel cells) and electrocatalysis (e.g., solid electrolyte, water splitting). [11][12][13][14][15] Nevertheless, these energy systems still face some tough problems and challenges. To realize large scale production, low cost and high efficiency, the development of advanced materials in these energy systems is crucial and indispensable.Porous materials, due to their unique properties and a wide range of applications, have always been a hot topic in research. [16][17][18][19][20] According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), porous material can be divided into three categories by their pore sizes. That is, microporous when pore size is below 2 nm, mesoporous (2-50 nm) and macroporous (>50 nm). Among them, mesoporous carbon materials have been regarded as promising candidates when applied in many energy systems owing to their large surface area and pore volumes, tunable pore size and channels. [21][22][23] All of these characteristics have their own merits, which can address certain issues in different energy storage and conversion systems. [24][25][26][27] First of all, the large surface area, especially when combined with particular functional groups or certain atoms doping, can provide much more reaction sites and active absorption sites during surface or interface-related reaction such as electrocatalytic process. [28,29] Secondly, large pore volumes can not only accommodate more guest materials as an excellent host but also buffer the volume change and relax the strain during repeated electrochemical reactions in many batteries. [30] Thirdly, the tunable pore size and channels can accelerate ions and intermediate species transport, which improve the reaction rate and assure the complete conversion of reaction. [31,32] Moreover, these mesopores with appropriate size have physical and chemical confinement effect to avoid the loss or aggregation of active materials in some energy storage devices and catalytic processes.On the other hand, in recent years, many freestanding 2D films based on graphene, black phosphorus or transition metal carbide MXenes have been synthesized. [33][34][35] 2D films,

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“…Inorganic mesoporous thin films are ideally suited for applications requiring high surface area and good mass and electron transport properties, such as in gas sensors 1,2 , fuel cells 3,4 , Bragg reflectors 5 , permselective membranes 6 , dye-sensitized solar cells 7,8 , batteries 9,10 , supercapacitors 11,12 , enzyme storage 13 , electrochemical biosensing 12,14 , catalysis 15 , etc. In most 3 cases, the interplay between porosity and pore size is crucial for their operation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced structural control of soft-templated mesoporous inorganic thin films by inert processing conditions

Fornerod

¹

,

Álvarez-Fernández

²

,

Williams

³

et al. 2022

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mesoporous thin films are widely used for applications in need of high surface area and good mass and charge transport properties. A well-established fabrication process involves the supramolecular assembly of organic molecules (e.g. block copolymers, and surfactants) with inorganic materials obtained by sol-gel chemistry. Typically, subsequent calcination in air serves to remove the organic template and reveal the pores. A major challenge for such coatings is the anisotropic shrinkage due to the volume contraction related to solvent evaporation, inorganic condensation, and template removal, affecting the final porosity as well as pore shape, size, arrangement and accessibility. Here, we show that a two-step calcination process, composed of high-temperature treatment in argon followed by air calcination, leads to reduced film contraction and enhanced structural control. Crucially, the formation of a transient carbonaceous scaffold enables the inorganic matrix to fully condense before template removal. The resulting mesoporous films retain a higher porosity as well as larger, more uniform pores with extended hexagonally closed-packed order. Such films present favorable characteristics for a variety of applications, such as improved mass transport of large biomolecules. This is demonstrated for the adsorption and desorption of lysozyme into the mesoporous thin films as an example of enzyme storage.

show abstract

Recent Advances in Soft Materials to Build and Functionalize Hard Structures for Electrochemical Energy Storage and In situ Electrochemical Molecular Biosensing

Cited by 15 publications

References 150 publications

Enhanced structural control of soft-templated mesoporous inorganic thin films by inert processing conditions

Enhanced structural control of soft-templated mesoporous inorganic thin films by inert processing conditions

Interfacial Assembly of Functional Mesoporous Carbon‐Based Materials into Films for Batteries and Electrocatalysis

Enhanced structural control of soft-templated mesoporous inorganic thin films by inert processing conditions

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