Nano-Au-decorated hierarchical porous cobalt sulfide derived from ZIF-67 toward optimized oxygen evolution catalysis:Important roles of microstructures and electronic modulation

Enhancing both the number of active sites available and the intrinsic activity of Co-based electrocatalysts simultaneously is a desirable goal.Herein,a ZIF-67-derived hierarchical porous cobalt sulfide decorated by Au nanoparticles(NPs)(denoted as HP-Au@CoxSy@ZIF-67)hybrid is synthesized by low-temperature sulfuration treatment.The well-defined macroporous-mesoporous-microporous structure is obtained based on the combination of polystyrene spheres,as-formed CoxSy nanosheets,and ZIF-67 frameworks.This novel three-dimensional hierarchical structure significantly enlarges the three-phase interfaces,accelerating the mass transfer and exposing the active centers for oxygen evolution reaction.The electronic structure of Co is modulated by Au through charge transfer,and a series of experiments,together with theoretical analysis,is performed to ascertain the electronic modulation of Co by Au.Meanwhile,HP-Au@CoxSy@ZIF-67 catalysts with different amounts of Au were synthesized,wherein Au and NaBH4 reductant result in an interesting“competition effect”to regulate the relative ratio of Co^(2+)/Co^(3+),and moderate Au assists the electrochemical performance to reach the highest value.Consequently,the optimized HP-Au@CoxSy@ZIF-67 exhibits a low overpotential of 340 mV at 10 mA cm^(-2)and a Tafel slope of 42 mV dec-1 for OER in 0.1 M aqueous KOH,enabling efficient water splitting and Zn-air battery performance.The work here highlights the pivotal roles of both microstructural and electronic modulation in enhancing electrocatalytic activity and presents a feasible strategy for designing and optimizing advanced electrocatalysts.

Lotus Leaf‑Derived Gradient Hierarchical Porous C/MoS2 Morphology Genetic Composites with Wideband and Tunable Electromagnetic Absorption Performance

Inspired by the nature,lotus leaf-derived gradient hierarchical porous C/MoS2 morphology genetic composites(GHPCM)were successfully fabricated through an in situ strategy.The biological microstructure of lotus leaf was well preserved after treatment.Different pores with gradient pore sizes ranging from 300 to 5μm were hierarchically distributed in the composites.In addition,the surface states of lotus leaf resulted in the Janus-like morphologies of MoS2.The GHPCM exhibit excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performance,with the minimum reflection loss of−50.1 dB at a thickness of 2.4 mm and the maximum effective bandwidth of 6.0 GHz at a thickness of 2.2 mm.The outstanding performance could be attributed to the synergy of conductive loss,polarization loss,and impedance matching.In particularly,we provided a brand-new dielectric sum-quotient model to analyze the electromagnetic performance of the non-magnetic material system.It suggests that the specific sum and quotient of permittivity are the key to keep reflection loss below−10 dB within a certain frequency range.Furthermore,based on the concept of material genetic engineering,the dielectric constant could be taken into account to seek for suitable materials with designable electromagnetic absorption performance.

Benzene alkylation with methanol over phosphate modified hierarchical porous ZSM-5 with tailored acidity

The acidity and acid distribution of hierarchical porous ZSM-5 were tailored via phosphate modification. The catalytic results showed that both benzene conversion and selectivity of toluene and xylene increased with the presence of appropriate amount of phosphorus. Meanwhile, side reactions such as methanol to olefins related with the formation of by-product ethylbenzene formation and isomerization of xylene to meta-xylene were suppressed efficiently. The acid strength and sites amount of Br?nsted acid of the catalyst were crucial for improving benzene conversion and yield of xylene, whereas passivation of external surface acid sites played an important role in breaking thermodynamic equilibrium distribution of xylene isomers.

A Novel Hierarchical Porous 3D Structured Vanadium Nitride/Carbon Membranes for High-performance Supercapacitor Negative Electrodes

Transition-metal nitrides exhibit wide potential windows and good electrochemical performance, but usually experience imbalanced practical applications in the energy storage field due to aggregation, poor circulation stability, and complicated syntheses. In this study, a novel and simple multiphase polymeric strategy was developed to fabricate hybrid vanadium nitride/carbon(VN/C) membranes for supercapacitor negative electrodes, in which VN nanoparticles were uniformly distributed in the hierarchical porous carbon 3D networks. The supercapacitor negative electrode based on VN/C membranes exhibited a high specific capacitance of 392.0 F g^(-1) at 0.5 A g^(-1) and an excellent rate capability with capacitance retention of 50.5% at 30 A g^(-1). For the asymmetric device fabricated using Ni(OH)_2//VN/C membranes, a high energy density of 43.0 Wh kg^(-1) at a power density of800 W kg^(-1) was observed. Moreover, the device also showed good cycling stability of 82.9% at a current density of 1.0 A g^(-1) after 8000 cycles. This work may throw a light on simply the fabrication of other high-performance transition-metal nitridebased supercapacitor or other energy storage devices.

Status and perspectives of hierarchical porous carbon materials in terms of high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries,although a promising candidate of next-generation energy storage devices,are hindered by some bottlenecks in their roadmap toward commercialization.The key challenges include solving the issues such as low utilization of active materials,poor cyclic stability,poor rate performance,and unsatisfactory Coulombic efficiency due to the inherent poor electrical and ionic conductivity of sulfur and its discharged products(e.g.,Li2S2 and Li_(2)S),dissolution and migration of polysulfide ions in the electrolyte,unstable solid electrolyte interphase and dendritic growth on an odes,and volume change in both cathodes and anodes.Owing to the high specific surface area,pore volume,low density,good chemical stability,and particularly multimodal pore sizes,hierarchical porous carbon(HPC)mate rials have received considerable attention for circumventing the above pro blems in Li-S batteries.Herein,recent progress made in the synthetic methods and deployment of HPC materials for various components including sulfur cathodes,separators and interlayers,and lithium anodes in Li-S batteries is presented and summarized.More importantly,the correlation between the structures(pore volume,specific surface area,degree of pores,and heteroatom-doping)of HPC and the electrochemical performances of Li-S batteries is elaborated.Finally,a discussion on the challenges and future perspectives associated with HPCs for Li-S batteries is provided.

Lignin derived hierarchical porous carbon with extremely suppressed polyselenide shuttling for high-capacity and long-cycle-life lithium-selenium batteries

Lithium-selenium(Li-Se)batteries have attracted considerable attentions for next-generation energy storage systems owing to high volumetric capacity of 3265 m Ah cm^(-3) and excellent electronic conductivity(~10^(-5)S cm^(-1))of selenium.However,the shuttling effect and capacity fading prevent their wide applications.Herein we report a low-cost strategy for scalable fabrication of lignin derived hierarchical porous carbon(LHPC)as a new high-loading Se host for high-capacity and long-term cycling Li-Se batteries in carbonate electrolyte.The resulting LHPC exhibits three-dimensional(3D)hierarchically porous structure,high specific surface area of 1696 m^(2) g^(-1),and hetero-atom doping(O,S),which can effectively confine the Se particles into the micropores,and meanwhile,offer effective chemical binding sites for selenides from hetero-atoms(O,S).As a result,our Li-Se batteries based on Se@LHPC demonstrate high capacity of 450 m Ah g^(-1) at 0.5 C after 500 cycles,with a low capacity fading rate of only 0.027%.The theoretical simulation confirmed the strong affinity of selenides on the O and S sites of LHPC effectively mitigating the Se losing.Therefore,our strategy of using lignin as the low-cost precursor of hierarchically porous carbon for high-loading Se host offers new opportunities for high-capacity and long-life Li-Se batteries.

Hierarchical porous nitrogen,oxygen,and phosphorus ternary doped hollow biomass carbon spheres for high-speed and long-life potassium storage

Limited lithium resources have promoted the exploration of new battery technologies.Among them,potassium-ion batteries are considered as promising alternatives.At present,commercial graphite and other carbon-based materials have shown good prospects as anodes for potassium-ion batteries.However,the volume expansion and structural collapse caused by periodic K+insertion/extraction have severely restricted further development and application of potassium-ion batteries.A hollow biomass carbon ball(NOP-PB)ternarily doped with N,O,and P was synthesized and used as the negative electrode of a potassium-ion battery.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy,and transmission electron microscopy confirmed that the hollow biomass carbon spheres were successfully doped with N,O,and P.Further analysis proved that N,O,and P ternary doping expands the interlayer distance of the graphite surface and introduces more defect sites.DFT calculations simultaneously proved that the K adsorption energy of the doped structure is greatly improved.The solid hollow hierarchical porous structure buffers the volume expansion of the potassium insertion process,maintains the original structure after a long cycle and promotes the transfer of potassium ions and electrons.Therefore,the NOP‐PB negative electrode shows extremely enhanced electrochemical performance,including high specific capacity,excellent long‐term stability,and good rate stability.

Anti-aggregation growth and hierarchical porous carbon encapsulation enables the C@VO_(2) cathode with superior storage capability for aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Self-aggregation and sluggish transport kinetics of cathode materials would usually lead to the poor electrochemical performance for aqueous zinc-ion batteries(AZIBs).In this work,we report the construction of C@VO_(2) composite via anti-aggregation growth and hierarchical porous carbon encapsulation.Both of the morphology of composite and pore structure of carbon layer can be regulated by tuning the adding amount of glucose.When acting as cathode applied for AZIBs,the C@VO_(2)-3:3 composite can deliver a high capacity of 281 m Ah g^(-1) at 0.2 A g^(-1).Moreover,such cathode also exhibits a remarkably rate capability and cyclic stability,which can release a specific capacity of 195 m Ah g^(-1) at 5 A g^(-1) with the capacity retention of 95.4%after 1000 cycles.Besides that,the evolution including the crystal structure,valence state and transport kinetics upon cycling were also deeply investigated.In conclusion,benefited from the synergistic effect of anti-aggregation morphology and hierarchical porous carbon encapsulation,the building of such C@VO_(2) composite can be highly expected to enhance the ion accessible site,boost the transport kinetics and thus performing a superior storage performance.Such design concept can be applied for other kinds of electrode materials and accelerating the development of highperformance AZIBs.

A novel one-step reaction sodium-sulfur battery with high areal sulfur loading on hierarchical porous carbon fiber

Room temperature sodium-sulfur(RT Na-S)batteries are gaining extensive attention as attractive alternatives for large-scale energy storage,due to low cost and high abundancy of sodium and sulfur in nature.However,the dilemmas regarding soluble polysulfides(Na_(2)Sn,4<n<8)and the inferior reaction kinetics limit their practical application.To address these issues,we report the activated porous carbon fibers(APCF)with small sulfur molecules(S2-4)confined in ultramicropores,to achieve a reversible single-step reaction in RT Na-S batteries.The mechanism is investigated by the in situ UV/vis spectroscopy,which demonstrates Na2S is the only product during the whole discharge process.Moreover,the hierarchical carbon structure can enhance areal sulfur loading without sacrificing the capacity due to thorough contact between electrolyte and sulfur electrode.As a consequence,the APCF electrode with 38 wt%sulfur(APCF-38S)delivers a high initial reversible specific capacity of 1412 mAh g^(-1) and 10.6mAh cm^(-2)(avg.areal sulfur loading:7.5 mg cm^(-2))at 0.1 C(1C=1675 mA g^(-1)),revealing high degree of sulfur utilization.This study provides a new strategy for the development of high areal capacity RT Na-S batteries.

Hierarchical porous MgBO_2(OH) microspheres: Hydrothermal synthesis,thermal decomposition, and application as adsorbents for Congo red removal

A facile eco-friendly hydrothermal route （180 ℃, 12.0 h） has been developed for the first time to the uniform hierarchical porous MgBO2（OH） microspheres without the aid of any organic additive, surfactant or template, by using the abundant MgCl2·6H2O, H3BO3 and NaOH as the raw materials. The as-obtained porous microspheres exhibit a specific surface area of 94.752 mg·g-1, pore volume of 0.814 cm3.g-1, and ca. 84.0% of which have a diameter of 2.25-3.40 μm. The thermal decomposition of the porous MgBO2（OH） microspheres （650 ℃, 2.5 ℃. min-l） leads to the porous Mg2B2O5 rnicrospheres with well-retained morphology. When utilized as the adsorbents for the removal of CR from mimic waste water, the present porous MgBO2（OH） microspheres exhibit satisfactory adsorption capacity, with the maximum adsorption capacity qm of 309.1 mg-g-1, much higher than that derived from most of the referenced adsorbents. This opens a new window for the facile green hydrothermal synthesis of the hierarchical porous MgBO2（OH） microspheres, and extends the potential application of the 3D hierarchical porous metal borates as high-efficiency adsorbents for organic dyes removal.

Metal–organic framework derived hierarchical porous TiO_2 nanopills as a super stable anode for Na-ion batteries

Hierarchical porous TiOnanopills were synthesized using a titanium metal-organic framework MIL-125（Ti） as precursor. The as-synthesized TiOnanopills owned a large specific surface area of 102 m/g and unique porous structure. Furthermore, the obtained TiOnanopills were applied as anode materials for Na-ion batteries for the first time. The as-synthesized TiOnanopills achieved a high discharge capacity of 196.4 m Ah/g at a current density of 0.1 A/g. A discharge capacity of 115.9 m Ah/g was obtained at a high current density of 0.5 A/g and the capacity retention was remained as high as 90% even after 3000 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance can be attributed to its unique hierarchical porous feature.

Facile Fabrication of Hierarchical Porous N/O Functionalized Carbon Derived from Blighted Grains Towards Electrochemical Capacitors

The hierarchical porous N/O co-functionalized carbon(HPNOC)was scalably prepared by using the lowcost and renewable blighted grains as the raw material coupled with mild KHCO_3 activation for electrochemical capacitors(ECs).The elemental N was in situ doped in the obtained HPNOC without any N-containing additives.Remarkably,the obtained HPNOC was endowed with a large specific surface area(about 2 624m^2·g^(-1)),high pore volume(about 1.35cm^3·g^(-1)),as well as high-content N/O functionalization(about 1.9%(in atom)N and about 10.2%(in atom)O.Furthermore,the as-resulted HPNOC electrode with a high mass loading of 5mg·cm^(-2 )exhibited competitive gravimetric capacitances of about 373.6F·g^(-1 )at 0.5A·g^(-1),and even about 260.4F·g^(-1 )at a high rate of 10A·g^(-1);superior capacitance retention of about 98.8%at 1A·g^(-1 )over 10 000consecutive cycles;and high specific energy of about 9.6W·h·kg^(-1 )at a power of 500W·kg^(-1),when evaluated as a promising electrode in 6mol KOH for advanced electrochemical supercapacitors.More encouragingly,the green synthetic strategy we developed holds a huge promise in generalizing for other biomass-derived carbon materials for versatile energy-related applications.

Fabrication and characterization of hierarchical porous Ni2+doped hydroxyapatite microspheres and their enhanced protein adsorption capacity

Hydroxyapatite(HAP)is a common bio-adsorbent,which performance depends heavily upon its morphology and microporous structure.In this study,a novel synthesis strategy was proposed for hierarchical porous HAP microspheres by a simple"one-pot"hydrothermal reaction.In the strategy,L-glutamic acid serves as soft template to modulate the morphology and inner crystalline of HAP.To evaluate the application potential,doping Ni^(2+) on hierarchical porous HAP microspheres gives metal chelated affinity adsorbents.The prepared adsorbents show a perfect spherical shape,particles size of 96.6μm,relatively specific surface area of 48.5 m^(2)·g^(-1) and hierarchical pores(mesopores:4 nm and macropores:53 nm).By the adsorption evaluation,it reveals that the Ni^(2+)-HAP adsorbents have high adsorption capacities of275.11 and 97.55 m^(2)·g^(-1) for hemoglobin and bovine serum albumin,respectively,which is comparable to other similar adsorbent.Therefore,this work provides a promising method for high-efficiency hydroxyapatite microspheres for proteins purification.

Development of covalent-organic frameworks derived hierarchical porous hollow carbon spheres based LiOH composites for thermochemical heat storage

Under the joint assistance of its excellent storage strength, accessible long storage lifespan, and high heat utilization efficiency, salt hydrate-based thermochemical heat storage(THS) materials give renewable energy an important outlet to alleviate the pressure of underutilization. Herein, an activated hollow spherical carbon(AHSC) with hierarchical porous architectures converted from covalent-organic frameworks(COFs) is constructed and utilized as the supporting matrix for Li OH.THS composite material for the first time. The obtained Li/AHSC_(3) composites have distinguished hydration performance while manifesting impressive storage ability up to 1916.4 k J kg^(-1)with low operating temperature stemming from the collective effect of the void spherical framework, multimodal porosity, and high surface area of AHSC3. And the Li/AHSC3-40 composite with evidently progressed thermal conductivity is capable of realizing 94.5% heat preservation after twenty-five adsorption-desorption cycles, exhibiting its eminent cyclability and great heat transfer performance. This study not only brings new hope for overcoming the underutilization of low-grade heat but also may enlighten new ideas for enriching the application scenarios of COFs-derived carbonaceous materials.

Dynamic Adsorption of Toluene on Hierarchical Porous Carbons with Varying Pore Structure

Hierarchical porous carbon material(MMC)was successfully fabricated via hard template synthesis method by carbonization of furfury alcohol within the template(MCM-41).The prepared MMC was studied with characterization methods including scanning electron microscopy(SEM),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),nitrogen adsorption-desorption analyses,and infrared spectral analysis(FTIR).To investigate kinetics of toluene adsorption of hierarchical porous carbon materials,the adsorption performances of these carbon samples with varying pore structure(MC-1,MMC,MMHPC)were analyzed via dynamic adsorption.And the Langmuir model and Freundlich equation were employed to correspond with adsorption isotherms to study the adsorption mechanism.The experimental results demonstrate that the Langmuir model is more appropriate to describe the adsorption process.The capacities of toluene adsorption follow the order of MMC<MMHPC(micro-meso hierarchical porous carbon)<MC-1(microporous carbon).MC-1 has satisfactory absorption performance due to its large pore volume and high ratio of micropores.MMHPC has excellent toluene adsorption performance for proper amounts of surface oxygen containing groups.Long saturation time,interconnected hierarchical pore channels,and large specific surface area make MMC also a promising material for VOCs treatment.These data reveal that the pore channel structure,rational pore distribution,high surface area and reasonable amounts of surface oxygen groups are the main factors contributed to excellent toluene adsorption performance,which proposes theoretical basis for hierarchical porous carbon materials to further engineering application.

Polysaccharide from Loquat Leaves to Prepare Hierarchical Porous Carbon as a Matrix for Active Sulfur

Fossil fuel exhaustion and overdevelopment usually lead to a recession,which is worsened by the environmental pollution.So it is of high priority to develop high-efficiency energy storage device.Here,agreen and environment-friendly strategy is devised to fabricate carbon materials from biomass.By water extraction and alcohol precipitation,polysaccharide is extracted from loquat leaves.After calcining under high temperature,hierarchical porous carbon materials(HPCM)are obtained,possessing a variety of macropores,mesopores and micropores.Such ample and hierarchical pores enable the electrolyte infiltration and the buffering of the volume expansion of sulfur in repeated electrochemical reactions.The structure stability of the entire electrode can thus be well maintained.When evaluated as the scaffold for sulfur,the electrochemical performance of carbon/sulfur composite was tested.Even after 500 cycles,the reversible capacity is retained as high as 485.4 mA·h/g at the current density of 1.6 A/g.It also offers a notable rate capability,attaining the discharge capacity of 700.7 mA·h/g at 2 C.All the electrochemical performance results prove the feasibility of the proposed strategy.

Synthesis of Hierarchical Porous Fe_(2)O_(3)/Al_(2)O_(3) Materials and Study on Catalytic Viscosity Reduction of Heavy Oil

Fe_(2)O_(3) nanoparticles were first dispersed in a sol solution containing an aluminum component introduced by an initial doping method.Composite catalyst Hierarchical Porous Fe_(2)O_(3)/Al_(2)O_(3) materials(HPFA)were then synthesized through a sol-gel method via phase separation.The performance of HPFA was compared with that of Fe_(2)O_(3) nanoparticle catalysts.The structure of the composite catalyst was characterized by scanning electron microscopy,X-ray diffraction,N_(2) adsorption/desorption,and crush strength testing.The results showed that the Fe_(2)O_(3) nanoparticles could be loaded into the porous skeletons of Hierarchical Porous Al_(2)O_(3) materials(HPA)to achieve a uniform dispersion while avoiding agglomeration,which improved the mechanical strength of the porous materials significantly.The HPFA was then used as a catalyst in the hydrothermal viscosity reduction process of Tuha heavy oil,and the viscosity reduction was investigated.The viscosity reduction rate of HPFA was 81%,which was better than that of the Fe_(2)O_(3) nanoparticles(56%)and HPA(47%).

Effect of TiO_2 Sol Impregnation on Biogenic Hierarchical Porous Structure of Rice Husk after High Temperature Treatment

Biogenic hierarchical porous rice husk SiO2 samples were prepared from pre-treating rice husk （RH） at low temperatures following TiO2 sol impregnation and pyrolysis process.The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy,X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive spectrometer.Biogenic hierarchical porous structure of untreated RH SiO2 starts to crack and break down from 800 ℃,whereas TiO2 grain film is formed on the pore wall and surface of RH SiO2 after sol impregnation and heat treatment,which enhances the skeleton strength ; the biogenic hierarchical porous structure of the rice husk still maintains after firing at 1 400 ℃.

In-situ embedded ultrafine Bi_(12)O_(17)Br_(2)nanotubes in MOF-derived hierarchical porous carbon for enhanced photocatalytic CO_(2)conversion to CO

Increasing the utilization efficiency of photogenerated electrons is highly recognized as one of the ef-ficient approaches to boost the photocatalytic CO_(2)conversion efficiency.Herein,ZIF-67-derived porous carbon(PC)material was employed for the construction of PC@ultrafine Bi_(12)O_(17)Br_(2)nanotubes(PC@BOB NTs)composites through a facile solvothermal synthesis in order to optimize the use of excited elec-trons in the BOB NTs.Photoelectrochemical characterization results revealed that the introduction of PC material achieved a faster charge separation rate in the PC@BOB composites,ensuring more photogener-ated electrons participate in the CO_(2)adsorption and activation process.Moreover,the pore structures of ZIF-67-derived PC material provided abundant confined spaces for the enrichment of CO_(2)molecules.Af-ter 5 h of Xenon lamp irradiation,PC@BOB composites exhibited obviously increased photocatalytic CO_(2)reduction activity in the pure water.When the addition amount of PC was 5 wt%,the PC@BOB-2 com-posite showed the highest CO evolution rate of 359.70μmol/g,which was 2.95 times higher than that of the pure BOB NTs.This work provides some independent insights into the applications of Metal-Organic Framework(MOF)-derived hierarchical porous structures to strengthen the CO_(2)enrichment,as well as the excited charge utilization efficiency,thus achieving a high solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency.