Smart heat isolator with hollow multishelled structures

Safe, green and efficient industrial production has always been the pursuit of the chemical industry. Since thermal energy is the driving force for most of chemical reactions, an ideal reaction tank would have the capacity to automatically regulate heat conduction rate. In detail, this reaction tank should endow an ability that resists the heat loss when the reaction temperature is lower than the target, while accelerating the heat dissipation when the system is overheated. In this case, this smart reactor can not only minimize energy consumption but also reduce safety risks.Hollow structures are known to reduce heat conductivity. Particularly, the hollow structure with multishells can provide more interfaces and thus further inhibit heat transmission, which would be more favorable for heat isolation. Step forward, by coupling HoMSs with temperature-sensitive polymer, a smart heat isolation material has been fabricated in this work. It performs as a good heat isolator at a relatively lower temperature. A heat insulation effect of 6.5℃ can be achieved for the TSPU/3S–TiO_(2)HoMSs with a thickness of 1 mm under the temperature field of 50℃.The thermal conductivity of composite material would be raised under overheating conditions. Furthermore, this composite displays an unusual two-stage phase transformation during heating. Benefiting from the unique multishelled structure, energy is found to be gradually guided into the hollow structure and stored inside. This localized heat accumulation enables the composite to be a potential coating material for intelligent thermal-regulator and site-defined micro-reactor.

Constructing BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)@polypyrrole composites with hollow multishelled structure for enhanced electromagnetic wave absorbing properties

BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)@polypyrrole(PPy)composites with hollow multishelled structure(HoMS)were constructed to enhance the electromagnetic wave absorbing properties of BaTiO_(3)-based absorbing material.BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)HoMSs were prepared by hydrothermal crystallization using TiO_(2)Ho MSs as template.Then,FeCl3 was introduced to initiate the oxidative polymerization of pyrrole monomer,forming BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)@PPy HoMSs successfully.The electromagnetic wave absorbing properties of BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)HoMSs and BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)@PPy Ho MSs with different shell number were investigated using a vector network analyzer.The results indicate that BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)@PPy HoMSs exhibit improved microwave absorption compared with BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)HoMSs.In particular,tripled-shelled BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)@PPy HoMS has the most excellent absorbing performance.The best reflection loss can reach up to-21.80 dB at 13.34 GHz with a corresponding absorber thickness of only 1.3 mm,and the qualified absorption bandwidth of tripled-shelled BaTiO_(3)/TiO_(2)@PPy HoMS is up to 4.2 GHz.This work paves a new way for the development of high-performance composite microwave absorbing materials.

Controllable Synthesis of Hollow Multishell Structured Co3O4 with Improved Rate Performance and Cyclic Stability for Supercapacitors

Hollow multishelled structures(HoMSs)Co3O4 with specially appointed shell number(double-,triple-and quadruple-)were accurately prepared by a sequential templating approach.Due to the superiorities of inimitable porous multishelled structure,triple-HoMSs Co3O4 achieved the best performance among all the samples with a specific capacitance of 1028.9 F/g at 10 mV/s and 688.2 F/g at 0.5 A/g,respectively.Furthermore,the electrode delivered a high rate performance(89.8%retention at 10 A/g)and excellent cycle stability(6.8%loss over 2000 cycles),showing a great promise for practical application in the future.

Hollow Multishelled Structure: Synthesis Chemistry and Application

Hollow multishelled structure(HoMS),a promising and complex multifunctional structural system,features at least two shells that are separated by internal voids.The unique structure endows it with numerous advantages including low density,high loading capacity,large specific surface area,facilitated mass transport,and multiple spatial confinement effect.In the past twenty years,benefiting from the booming development of synthesis methods,various HoMS materials have been prepared and show promising applications in diverse areas.

Hollow Multishelled Structure Reviving Lithium Metal Anode for High-energy-density Batteries

Due to its highest theoretical capacity and its lowest redox potential,lithium(Li)metal has been considered as the ultimate anode choice for high-energy-density rechargeable batteries.However,its commercialization is severely hindered by its poor cyclic stability and safety issues.Diverse material structure design concepts have been raised to address these failure models,wherein,hollow structure has shown great power in solving the challenges.Especially,a hollow multishelled structure(HoMs)featured with two or more shells has been proved to be more efficient to improve Li metal anode than their single-shelled counterparts.Herein,this up-to-date review summarizes the recent progress of the application of HoMs in Li metal anode,including their adoption as Li metal host,artificial solid electrolyte interphase film,electrolyte additive,solid state electrolyte,etc.HoMs offers unique advantages,such as suppressing Li dendrite growth,stabilizing electrode-electrolyte interface,and improving overall battery performance.Future research directions are outlined,emphasizing the need for multifunctional integrated smart HoMS design and large-scale fabrication of HoMS through low-cost accurate method to further advance the commercialization of Li metal batteries.

Multi-functional Hollow Structures for Intelligent Drug Delivery

Multi-fountional hollow structures have emerged as promising platforms for intelligent drug delivery due to their unique properties,such as high loading capacities and programmed drug release.In particular,hollow multishell structures(HoMSs)with multilevel shell and space can regulate the molecular-level interaction between drugs and materials,so as to achieve the temporal-spatial order and sequential release of drugs.The anisotropic hollow structures can control the drug diffusion process by inducing the macroscopic interface flow through autonomous movement,realizing the targeted drug transport and release.In this paper,a key focus will be HoMSs with their temporal-ordered architectures and anisotropic hollow carriers with directional movement.Their synthesis mechanisms,structure-property relationships,smartly programmed drug delivery and biomedical applications will be discussed,providing insights into designing next-generation intelligent drug carriers.

Regulating Oxygen Vacancy Defects in Heterogeneous NiO-CeO_(2)−δ Hollow Multi-shelled Structure for Boosting Oxygen Evolution Reaction

CeO_(2) with excellent oxygen storage-exchange capacity and NiO with excellent surface activity were used to construct a heterogeneous NiO-CeO_(2)−δhollow multi-shelled structure(HoMS)by spray drying.It turned out that as the proportion of CeO_(2) increases,the overpotential and Tafel slope of NiO-CeO_(2)−δHoMSs first decreased and then increased.This is mainly because the construction of the NiO-CeO_(2)−δHoMSs not only increases the specific surface area,but also introduces oxygen vacancy defects,thus improving the interface charge transfer capability of the materials and further improving the oxygen evolution reaction(OER)performance.However,the increase of the calcination temperature will induce the decay of the OER performance of NiO-CeO_(2)−δHoMSs,which is mainly due to the decrease of the specific surface area,the reduction of oxygen vacancy defects,and the weakening of interface charge transfer capability.Furthermore,a series of heterogeneous composite HoMSs,such as Ni/Co,Mo/Ni,Al/Ni and Fe/Ni oxides was successfully constructed by spray drying,which enriched the diversity of HoMSs.

Hollow multishelled structural TiN as multi-functional catalytic host for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur(Li-S)battery has attracted extensive attention because of its ultrahigh theoretical energy density and low cost.However,its commercialization is seriously hampered by its short cycling life,mainly due to the shuttle of soluble lithium polysulfides(LiPSs)and poor rate capability due to sluggish reaction kinetics.Although significant efforts have been devoted to solving the problems,it is still challenging to simultaneously address all the issues.Herein,titanium nitride hollow multishelled structure(TiN HoMS)sphere is designed as a multi-functional catalytic host for sulfur cathode.TiN,with good conductivity,can effectively catalyze the redox conversion of S and LiPSs,while its surficial oxidation passivation layer can strongly anchor LiPSs.Besides,HoMS enables TiN nanoparticle subunits to expose abundant active sites for anchoring and promoting conversion of LiPSs,while the multiple shells provide physical barriers to restrict the shuttle effect.In addition,HoMS can buffer the volume expansion of sulfur and shorten the charge transport pathway.As a result,the sulfur cathode based on triple-shelled TiN HoMS exhibits an initial specific capacity of 1016 mAh·g-1 at a high sulfur loading of 2.8 mg·cm-2 and maintains 823 mAh·g-1 after 100 cycles.Moreover,it shows a four times higher specific capacity than the one without TiN host at 2 C.

Progress and Perspectives of Hollow Multishelled Structures

Hollow multishelled structure(HoMs)has drawn tremendous attention due to its abundant attractive properties and promising applications.However,for a long time,the limited synthesis method hindered the development of HoMs.The sequential templating approach developed by our group,has greatly enriched its composition and'structure diversity.The progress in HoMS synthesis promotes the discovery of its characteristics as well as widens its application area.Typicall,the recently explored temporal-spatial ordering characteristic of HoMS has shown great promise in drug delivery and cascade catalysis application areas.Here,we summarize the current development progress of HoMS in the aspects of both synthesis and application,with a focus discussion on how to shape its application performance by manipulating its composition and structure features.In addition,we discuss the current challenges and providethe future potentials holdingfor HoMs.

The development of hollow multishelled structure: from the innovation of synthetic method to the discovery of new characteristics

Hollow multishelled structure(HoMS)is one of the most promising multifunctional structures.The high complexity of its structure makes the general and controllable synthesis of HoMS rather challenging.By integration of multidisciplinary knowledge,a great achievement in HoMSs has been obtained in the past decade.Especially,the developed sequential templating approach has significantly boomed the progress of HoMS in composition and structure diversity and application area.The implementation of the temporal-spatial ordering in HoMS makes it indispensable in solving the key scientific problems in energy conversion,catalysis and drug delivery areas.Further development in HoMSs with novel intricate structures will bring new understandings.In this review,we systematically introduce the development history of HoMSs,summarize the inspiration inherited from the previous research on hollow structures,and discuss the milestones in the development of HoMSs,with a focus on the sequential templating approach for HoMS fabrication,attractive temporal-spatial ordering property and dynamic smart behavior for advanced applications.We hope to reveal the inherent relationship between the precise synthesis of HoMS and its highly tunable compositional and structural characteristics,and point out its future direction to boost HoMS area further.