摘要
Metal oxide hollow structures with multilevel interiors are of great interest for potential applications such as catalysis, chemical sensing, drug delivery, and energy storage. However, the controlled synthesis of multilevel nanotubes remains a great challenge. Here we develop a facile interface-modulated approach toward the synthesis of complex metal oxide multilevel nanotubes with tunable interior structures through electrospinning followed by controlled heat treatment. This versatile strategy can be effectively applied to fabricate wire-in-tube and tube- in-tube nanotubes of various metal oxides. These multilevel nanotubes possess a large specific surface area, fast mass transport, good strain accommodation, and high packing density, which are advantageous for lithium-ion batteries （LIBs） and the oxygen reduction reaction （ORR）. Specifically, shrinkable CoMn204 tube-in-tube nanotubes as a lithium-ion battery anode deliver a high discharge capacity of -565 mAh-g-1 at a high rate of 2 A.g-~, maintaining 89% of the latter after 500 cycles. Further, as an oxygen reduction reaction catalyst, these nanotubes also exhibit excellent stability with about 92% current retention after 30,000 s, which is higher than that of commercial Pt/C （81%）. Therefore, this feasible method may push the rapid development of one-dimensional （1D） nanomaterials. These multifunctional nanotubes have great potential in many frontier fields.
Metal oxide hollow structures with multilevel interiors are of great interest for potential applications such as catalysis, chemical sensing, drug delivery, and energy storage. However, the controlled synthesis of multilevel nanotubes remains a great challenge. Here we develop a facile interface-modulated approach toward the synthesis of complex metal oxide multilevel nanotubes with tunable interior structures through electrospinning followed by controlled heat treatment. This versatile strategy can be effectively applied to fabricate wire-in-tube and tube- in-tube nanotubes of various metal oxides. These multilevel nanotubes possess a large specific surface area, fast mass transport, good strain accommodation, and high packing density, which are advantageous for lithium-ion batteries （LIBs） and the oxygen reduction reaction （ORR）. Specifically, shrinkable CoMn204 tube-in-tube nanotubes as a lithium-ion battery anode deliver a high discharge capacity of -565 mAh-g-1 at a high rate of 2 A.g-~, maintaining 89% of the latter after 500 cycles. Further, as an oxygen reduction reaction catalyst, these nanotubes also exhibit excellent stability with about 92% current retention after 30,000 s, which is higher than that of commercial Pt/C （81%）. Therefore, this feasible method may push the rapid development of one-dimensional （1D） nanomaterials. These multifunctional nanotubes have great potential in many frontier fields.
基金
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China （Nos. 2013CB934103 and 2012CB933003）, the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Nos. 51521001 and 51272197）, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars （No. 51425204）, the Hubei Province Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars （No. 2014CFA035）, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities （Nos. 2015-III-032, 2016-YB-004, and 2015-KF-3）. We thank Prof. D~ Y. Zhao of Fudan University and Prof. J. Liu of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for useful discussions and assistance with the manuscript.
