@article{HwangWalczakOschatzetal.2019, author = {Hwang, Jongkook and Walczak, Ralf and Oschatz, Martin and Tarakina, Nadezda and Schmidt, Bernhard V. K. J.}, title = {Micro-Blooming: Hierarchically Porous Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Flowers Derived from Metal-Organic Mesocrystals}, series = {Small}, volume = {15}, journal = {Small}, number = {37}, publisher = {Wiley-VCH}, address = {Weinheim}, issn = {1613-6810}, doi = {10.1002/smll.201901986}, pages = {10}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Synthesis of 3D flower-like zinc-nitrilotriacetic acid (ZnNTA) mesocrystals and their conformal transformation to hierarchically porous N-doped carbon superstructures is reported. During the solvothermal reaction, 2D nanosheet primary building blocks undergo oriented attachment and mesoscale assembly forming stacked layers. The secondary nucleation and growth preferentially occurs at the edges and defects of the layers, leading to formation of 3D flower-like mesocrystals comprised of interconnected 2D micropetals. By simply varying the pyrolysis temperature (550-1000 degrees C) and the removal method of in the situ-generated Zn species, nonporous parent mesocrystals are transformed to hierarchically porous carbon flowers with controllable surface area (970-1605 m(2) g(-1)), nitrogen content (3.4-14.1 at\%), pore volume (0.95-2.19 cm(3) g(-1)), as well as pore diameter and structures. The carbon flowers prepared at 550 degrees C show high CO2/N-2 selectivity due to the high nitrogen content and the large fraction of (ultra)micropores, which can greatly increase the CO2 affinity. The results show that the physicochemical properties of carbons are highly dependent on the thermal transformation and associated pore formation process, rather than directly inherited from parent precursors. The present strategy demonstrates metal-organic mesocrystals as a facile and versatile means toward 3D hierarchical carbon superstructures that are attractive for a number of potential applications.}, language = {en} } @article{QinZhaoSchmalleggeretal.2019, author = {Qin, Qing and Zhao, Yun and Schmallegger, Max and Heil, Tobias and Schmidt, Johannes and Walczak, Ralf and Gescheidt-Demner, Georg and Jiao, Haijun and Oschatz, Martin}, title = {Enhanced Electrocatalytic N-2 Reduction via Partial Anion Substitution in Titanium Oxide-Carbon Composites}, series = {Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition}, volume = {58}, journal = {Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition}, number = {37}, publisher = {Wiley-VCH}, address = {Weinheim}, issn = {1433-7851}, doi = {10.1002/anie.201906056}, pages = {13101 -- 13106}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The electrochemical conversion of N-2 at ambient conditions using renewably generated electricity is an attractive approach for sustainable ammonia (NH3) production. Considering the chemical inertness of N-2, rational design of efficient and stable catalysts is required. Therefore, in this work, it is demonstrated that a C-doped TiO2/C (C-TixOy/C) material derived from the metal-organic framework (MOF) MIL-125(Ti) can achieve a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 17.8 \%, which even surpasses most of the established noble metal-based catalysts. On the basis of the experimental results and theoretical calculations, the remarkable properties of the catalysts can be attributed to the doping of carbon atoms into oxygen vacancies (OVs) and the formation of Ti-C bonds in C-TixOy. This binding motive is found to be energetically more favorable for N-2 activation compared to the non-substituted OVs in TiO2. This work elucidates that electrochemical N-2 reduction reaction (NRR) performance can be largely improved by creating catalytically active centers through rational substitution of anions into metal oxides.}, language = {en} } @article{YanJosefHuangetal.2019, author = {Yan, Runyu and Josef, Elinor and Huang, Haijian and Leus, Karen and Niederberger, Markus and Hofmann, Jan P. and Walczak, Ralf and Antonietti, Markus and Oschatz, Martin}, title = {Understanding the charge storage mechanism to achieve high capacity and fast ion storage in sodium-ion capacitor anodes by using electrospun nitrogen-doped carbon fibers}, series = {Advanced functional materials}, volume = {29}, journal = {Advanced functional materials}, number = {26}, publisher = {Wiley-VCH}, address = {Weinheim}, issn = {1616-301X}, doi = {10.1002/adfm.201902858}, pages = {13}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Microporous nitrogen-rich carbon fibers (HAT-CNFs) are produced by electrospinning a mixture of hexaazatriphenylene-hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN) and polyvinylpyrrolidone and subsequent thermal condensation. Bonding motives, electronic structure, content of nitrogen heteroatoms, porosity, and degree of carbon stacking can be controlled by the condensation temperature due to the use of the HAT-CN with predefined nitrogen binding motives. The HAT-CNFs show remarkable reversible capacities (395 mAh g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1)) and rate capabilities (106 mAh g(-1) at 10 A g(-1)) as an anode material for sodium storage, resulting from the abundant heteroatoms, enhanced electrical conductivity, and rapid charge carrier transport in the nanoporous structure of the 1D fibers. HAT-CNFs also serve as a series of model compounds for the investigation of the contribution of sodium storage by intercalation and reversible binding on nitrogen sites at different rates. There is an increasing contribution of intercalation to the charge storage with increasing condensation temperature which becomes less active at high rates. A hybrid sodium-ion capacitor full cell combining HAT-CNF as the anode and salt-templated porous carbon as the cathode provides remarkable performance in the voltage range of 0.5-4.0 V (95 Wh kg(-1) at 0.19 kW kg(-1) and 18 Wh kg(-1) at 13 kW kg(-1)).}, language = {en} } @article{WalczakSavateevHeskeetal.2019, author = {Walczak, Ralf and Savateev, Aleksandr and Heske, Julian and Tarakina, Nadezda V. and Sahoo, Sudhir and Epping, Jan D. and Kuehne, Thomas D. and Kurpil, Bogdan and Antonietti, Markus and Oschatz, Martin}, title = {Controlling the strength of interaction between carbon dioxide and nitrogen-rich carbon materials by molecular design}, series = {Sustainable energy \& fuels}, volume = {3}, journal = {Sustainable energy \& fuels}, number = {10}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {2398-4902}, doi = {10.1039/c9se00486f}, pages = {2819 -- 2827}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Thermal treatment of hexaazatriphenylene-hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN) in the temperature range from 500 degrees C to 700 degrees C leads to precise control over the degree of condensation, and thus atomic construction and porosity of the resulting C2N-type materials. Depending on the condensation temperature of HAT-CN, nitrogen contents of more than 30 at\% can be reached. In general, these carbons show adsorption properties which are comparable to those known for zeolites but their pore size can be adjusted over a wider range. At condensation temperatures of 525 degrees C and below, the uptake of nitrogen gas remains negligible due to size exclusion, but the internal pores are large and polarizing enough that CO2 can still adsorb on part of the internal surface. This leads to surprisingly high CO2 adsorption capacities and isosteric heat of adsorption of up to 52 kJ mol(-1). Theoretical calculations show that this high binding enthalpy arises from collective stabilization effects from the nitrogen atoms in the C2N layers surrounding the carbon atom in the CO2 molecule and from the electron acceptor properties of the carbon atoms from C2N which are in close proximity to the oxygen atoms in CO2. A true CO2 molecular sieving effect is achieved for the first time in such a metal-free organic material with zeolite-like properties, showing an IAST CO2/N-2 selectivity of up to 121 at 298 K and a N-2/CO2 ratio of 90/10 without notable changes in the CO2 adsorption properities over 80 cycles.}, language = {en} }