Sulfur/carbon composites prepared with ordered porous carbon for Li-S battery cathode

Ordered porous cabon with a 2-D hexagonal structure,high specific surface area and large pore volume was synthesized through a twostep heating method using tri-block copolymer as template and phenolic resin as carbon precursor.The results indicated the electrochemical performance of the sulfur/carbon composites prepared with the ordered porous carbon was significantly affected by the pore structure of the carbon.Both the specific capacity and cycling stability of the sulfur/carbon composites were improved using the bimodal micro/meso-porous carbon frameworks with high surface area.Its initial discharge capacity can be as high as 1200 mAh·g-1 at a current density of 167.5 mA·g-1The improved capacity retention was obtained during the cell cycling as well.

Meso-porous silicon-coated carbon nanotube as an anode for lithium-ion battery

Meso-porous Si-coated carbon nanotube （CNT） composite powders were prepared by combining a sol-gel method and the magnesiothermic reduction process. Meso-porous Si-coated CNT electrodes exhibit excellent cycle and rate performances as anodes in Li-ion batteries （LIBs）, which can be attributed to the efficient accommodation of volume change from meso-porous Si structure and the enhanced electrical conductivity from CNT core. This simple synthesis and subsequent reduction process provide a scalable route for the large-scale production of Si-C composite nanostructures, which can be utilized in a variety of applications, such as in photocatalysis, photoelectrochemical cells （PECs）, and LIBs.

Fabrication and characterization of novel meso-porous carbon/n-octadecane as form-stable phase change materials for enhancement of phase-change behavior

In this study, series of novel composite phase change materials(PCMs) were prepared through vacuum impregnation by using meso-porous carbon as a supporting matrix and n-octadcane as PCMs.The meso-porous carbon material was prepared through one-pot co-assembly method, using resorcinol and formaldehyde as carbon precursor, tetraethoxysilane as silica sources and triblock copolymer F127 as a template. And the phase behaviors of n-octadcane confined in the nano-porous structure of the meso-porous carbon were further investigated. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy spectra show that n-octadecane was effectively encapsulated in the porous structure of mesoporous carbon and the composite PCMs were successfully prepared. Differential scanning calorimetry results confirm that the composite PCMs possess a good phase change behavior, fast thermal-response rate and excellent thermal cycling stability. In addition, the composite PCMs possess expected heat storage and heat release properties. All these results demonstrate that the composite PCMs possess good comprehensive property so that they can be used widely in energy storage systems.

Synthesis of Pt-SnOx/TS-1@SBA-16 Composites and Their High Catalytic Performance for Propane Dehydrogenation

A novel composite material of TS-1@SBA-16 was synthesized by enwrapping TS-1 zeolite crystals with mesoporous SBA-16 silica. This composite was used as catalyst support for loading Pt-SnOx in the propane dehydr genation(PDH) reaction. Catalysts were characterized by means ofN2 adsorption-desorption, XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, UV-Vis, and Raman spectroscopy. The effect of different contents of TS-1 on PDH was investigated, and the optimal amount of TS-1 was determined to be 10%. The catalyst with TS-1 content of 10% showed the highest PDH activity and the initial conversion of propane over it can achieve 54.5%, higher than those over TS-1 or SB A-16-supported ones. The superior catalytic performance of Pt-SnOx/TS-1 @SBA-16 is related to the synergistic effect of the excellent mass transfer performance through the hierarchical porous structure, suitable acid acidity and electronic effect of Ti species.

Porous silica synthesis out of coal fly ash with no residue generation and complete silicon separation

Ordered mesoporous silica materials exhibit enormous potential in industrial production.Since coal fly ash(CFA)is abundant in Si,it has become a green and promising way to utilize CFA by synthesizing porous silica materials.However,the stable crystalline structure of CFA limits the extraction of Si,and the residue is generated during the process of extracting Si.In this work,we proposed a no-residue method to synthesize ordered mesoporous silica out of CFA.Sodium carbonate(Na_(2)CO_(3))was used to reconstruct the crystals of the CFA,and the calcined mixture then directly reacted with the precipitators.This method combined the process of Si extraction and porous material synthesis.In this method,no residue was generated and the silicon in both amorphous and crystalline phases of CFA was fully utilized.By this method,the extraction efficiency of Si was increased from 31.75%to nearly 100%.The as-synthesized mesoporous silica had a highly-ordered pore structure with a space group of la-3d,a surface area of 663.87 m^(2)/g,a pore volume of 0.41 cm^(3)/g,and an average pore diameter of 2.73 nm.The mechanism of crystalline transformation and material structure formation were systematically studied.This method provides a new idea to dispose of CFA and synthesize porous silica materials.