TY - JOUR A1 - Lai, Feili A1 - Feng, Jianrui A1 - Heil, Tobias A1 - Tian, Zhihong A1 - Schmidt, Johannes A1 - Wang, Gui-Chang A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - Partially delocalized charge in Fe-doped NiCo2S4 nanosheet-mesoporous carbon-composites for high-voltage supercapacitors JF - Journal of materials chemistry : A, Materials for energy and sustainability N2 - Unraveling the effect of transition-metal doping on the energy storage properties of bimetallic sulfides remains a grand challenge. Herein, we construct bimetallic sulfide nanosheets and hence deliberately introduce transition-metal doping domains on their surface. The resulting materials show not only an enhanced density of states near the Fermi level but also partially delocalized charge as shown by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Fe-doped NiCo2S4 nanosheets wrapped on N,S-doped ordered mesoporous carbon (Fe-NiCo2S4@N,S-CMK-3) are prepared, which show an enhanced specific capacitance of 197.8 F g(-1) in ionic liquid-based supercapacitors at a scan rate of 2 mV s(-1). This is significantly higher as compared to the capacitance of 155.2 and 135.9 F g(-1) of non-iron-doped NiCo2S4@N,S-CMK and Fe-NiCo2S4@CMK-3 electrodes, respectively. This result arises from the enhanced ionic liquid polarization effect and transportation ability from the Fe-NiCo2S4 surface and N,S-CMK-3 structure. Furthermore, the importance of matching multi-dimensional structures and ionic liquid ion sizes in the fabrication of asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) is demonstrated. As a result, the ASC device exhibits a high energy density of 107.5 W h kg(-1) at a power density of 100 W kg(-1) in a working-voltage window of 4 V when using Fe-NiCo2S4@N,S-CMK-3 and N,S-CMK-3 as positive and negative electrodes, respectively. This work puts forward a new direction to design supercapacitor composite electrodes for efficient ionic liquid coupling. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ta06250e SN - 2050-7488 SN - 2050-7496 VL - 7 IS - 33 SP - 19342 EP - 19347 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hwang, Jongkook A1 - Walczak, Ralf A1 - Oschatz, Martin A1 - Tarakina, Nadezda A1 - Schmidt, Bernhard V. K. J. T1 - Micro-Blooming: Hierarchically Porous Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Flowers Derived from Metal-Organic Mesocrystals JF - Small N2 - 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. KW - 3D flower superstructures KW - hierarchically porous carbon KW - metal-organic mesocrystals KW - thermal transformation mechanism Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201901986 SN - 1613-6810 SN - 1613-6829 VL - 15 IS - 37 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Qin, Qing A1 - Zhao, Yun A1 - Schmallegger, Max A1 - Heil, Tobias A1 - Schmidt, Johannes A1 - Walczak, Ralf A1 - Gescheidt-Demner, Georg A1 - Jiao, Haijun A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - Enhanced Electrocatalytic N-2 Reduction via Partial Anion Substitution in Titanium Oxide-Carbon Composites JF - Angewandte Chemie : a journal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker ; International edition N2 - 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. KW - ammonia synthesis KW - anion substitution KW - MOF-derived catalysts KW - N-2 fixation KW - non-noble metal catalysts Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201906056 SN - 1433-7851 SN - 1521-3773 VL - 58 IS - 37 SP - 13101 EP - 13106 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aloni, Sapir Shekef A1 - Perovic, Milena A1 - Weitman, Michal A1 - Cohen, Reut A1 - Oschatz, Martin A1 - Mastai, Yitzhak T1 - Amino acid-based ionic liquids as precursors for the synthesis of chiral nanoporous carbons JF - Nanoscale Advances N2 - The synthesis of chiral nanoporous carbons based on chiral ionic liquids (CILs) of amino acids as precursors is described. Such unique precursors for the carbonization of CILs yield chiral carbonaceous materials with high surface area (approximate to 620 m(2) g(-1)). The enantioselectivities of the porous carbons are examined by advanced techniques such as selective adsorption of enantiomers using cyclic voltammetry, isothermal titration calorimetry, and mass spectrometry. These techniques demonstrate the chiral nature and high enantioselectivity of the chiral carbon materials. Overall, we believe that the novel approach presented here can contribute significantly to the development of new chiral carbon materials that will find important applications in chiral chemistry, such as in chiral catalysis and separation and in chiral sensors. From a scientific point of view, the approach and results reported here can significantly deepen our understanding of chirality at the nanoscale and of the structure and nature of chiral nonporous materials and surfaces. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c9na00520j SN - 2516-0230 VL - 1 IS - 12 SP - 4981 EP - 4988 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Qin, Qing A1 - Heil, T. A1 - Schmidt, J. A1 - Schmallegger, Max A1 - Gescheidt, Georg A1 - Antonietti, Markus A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - Electrochemical Fixation of Nitrogen and Its Coupling with Biomass Valorization with a Strongly Adsorbing and Defect Optimized Boron-Carbon-Nitrogen Catalyst JF - ACS Applied Energy Materials N2 - The electrochemical conversion of low-cost precursors into high-value chemicals using renewably generated electricity is a promising approach to build up an environmentally friendly energy cycle, including a storage element. The large-scale implementation of such process can, however, only be realized by the design of cost-effective electrocatalysts with high efficiency and highest stability. Here, we report the synthesis of N and B codoped porous carbons. The constructed B-N motives combine abundant unpaired electrons and frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs). They result in desirable performance for electrochemical N-2 reduction reaction (NRR) and electrooxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in the absence of any metal cocatalyst. A maximum Faradaic efficiency of 15.2% with a stable NH3 production rate of 21.3 mu g h(-1) mg(-1) is obtained in NRR. Besides, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is first obtained by using non-metalbased electrocatalysts at a conversion of 71% and with yield of 57%. Gas adsorption experiments elucidate the relationship between the structure and the ability of the catalysts to activate the substrate molecules. This work opens up deep insights for the rational design of non-metal-based catalysts for potential electrocatalytic applications and the possible enhancement of their activity by the introduction of FLPs and point defects at grain boundaries. KW - non-metal catalysis KW - porous carbon KW - heteroatoms KW - N-2 reduction KW - HMF oxidation Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.9b01852 SN - 2574-0962 VL - 2 IS - 11 SP - 8359 EP - 8365 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yan, Runyu A1 - Josef, Elinor A1 - Huang, Haijian A1 - Leus, Karen A1 - Niederberger, Markus A1 - Hofmann, Jan P. A1 - Walczak, Ralf A1 - Antonietti, Markus A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - 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 JF - Advanced functional materials N2 - 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)). KW - carbon fibers KW - nitrogen-doped carbon KW - sodium-ion capacitors KW - sodium storage mechanism Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201902858 SN - 1616-301X SN - 1616-3028 VL - 29 IS - 26 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lai, Feili A1 - Feng, Jianrui A1 - Hei, Tobias A1 - Wang, Gui-Chang A1 - Adler, Peter A1 - Antonietti, Markus A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - Strong metal oxide-support interactions in carbon/hematite nanohybrids activate novel energy storage modes for ionic liquid-based supercapacitors JF - Energy Storage Materials N2 - Strong metal oxide-support interaction is crucial to activate high energy storage modes of carbon-supported hybrid electrodes in ionic liquid-based supercapacitors. Although it is known that conductive supports can influence the electrochemical properties of metal oxides, insights into how metal oxide-support interactions can be exploited to optimize joint energy storage properties are lacking. We report the junction between alpha-Fe2O3 nanosplotches and phosphorus-doped ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3-P) with strong covalent anchoring of the metal oxide. The oxide-carbon interaction in CMK-3-P-Fe2O3 is strengthening the junction and charge transfer between Fe2O3 and CMK-3-P. It enhances energy storage by intensifying the interaction between ionic liquid ions and the surface of the electrode. Density functional theory simulations reveal that the strong metal oxide-support interaction increases the adsorption energy of ionic liquid to -4.77 eV as compared to -3.85 eV for a CMK-3Fe(2)O(3) hybrid with weaker binding. In spite of the lower specific surface area and apparently similar energy storage mode, the CMK-3-P-Fe2O3 exhibits superior electrical double-layer capacitor performance with a specific capacitance of 179 F g(-1) at 2 mV s(-1) (0-3.5 V) in comparison to Fe2O3-free CMK-3 and CMK-3-P reference materials. This principle for design of hybrid electrodes can be applicable for future rational design of stable metal oxide-support electrodes for advanced energy storage. KW - Supercapacitor KW - Nanohybrid KW - Iron oxide KW - Ionic liquid KW - Ordering transitions KW - Main text Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2019.04.035 SN - 2405-8297 VL - 20 SP - 188 EP - 195 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Walczak, Ralf A1 - Savateev, Aleksandr A1 - Heske, Julian A1 - Tarakina, Nadezda V. A1 - Sahoo, Sudhir A1 - Epping, Jan D. A1 - Kuehne, Thomas D. A1 - Kurpil, Bogdan A1 - Antonietti, Markus A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - Controlling the strength of interaction between carbon dioxide and nitrogen-rich carbon materials by molecular design JF - Sustainable energy & fuels N2 - 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. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c9se00486f SN - 2398-4902 VL - 3 IS - 10 SP - 2819 EP - 2827 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Perovic, Milena A1 - Qin, Qing A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - From molecular precursors to nanoparticles BT - tailoring the adsorption properties of porous carbon materials by controlled chemical functionalization JF - Advanced functional materials N2 - Nanoporous carbon materials (NCMs) provide the "function" of high specific surface area and thus have large interface area for interactions with surrounding species, which is of particular importance in applications related to adsorption processes. The strength and mechanism of adsorption depend on the pore architecture of the NCMs. In addition, chemical functionalization can be used to induce changes of electron density and/or electron density distribution in the pore walls, thus further modifying the interactions between carbons and guest species. Typical approaches for functionalization of nanoporous materials with regular atomic construction like porous silica, metal-organic frameworks, or zeolites, cannot be applied to NCMs due to their less defined local atomic construction and abundant defects. Therefore, synthetic strategies that offer a higher degree of control over the process of functionalization are needed. Synthetic approaches for covalent functionalization of NCMs, that is, for the incorporation of heteroatoms into the carbon backbone, are critically reviewed with a special focus on strategies following the concept "from molecules to materials." Approaches for coordinative functionalization with metallic species, and the functionalization by nanocomposite formation between pristine carbon materials and heteroatom-containing carbons, are introduced as well. Particular focus is given to the influences of these functionalizations in adsorption-related applications. KW - composites KW - heteroatoms KW - metal species KW - porous carbon materials KW - surface KW - functionalization Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201908371 SN - 1616-301X SN - 1616-3028 VL - 30 IS - 41 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Qin, Qing A1 - Oschatz, Martin T1 - Overcoming chemical inertness under ambient conditions BT - a critical view on recent developments in Ammonia synthesis via electrochemical N-2 reduction by asking five questions JF - ChemElectroChem N2 - Ammonia (NH3) synthesis by the electrochemical N-2 reduction reaction (NRR) is increasingly studied and proposed as an alternative process to overcome the disadvantages of Haber-Bosch synthesis by a more energy-efficient, carbon-free, delocalized, and sustainable process. An ever-increasing number of scientists are working on the improvement of the faradaic efficiency (FE) and NH3 production rate by developing novel catalysts, electrolyte concepts, and/or by contributing theoretical studies. The present Minireview provides a critical view on the interplay of different crucial aspects in NRR from the electrolyte, over the mechanism of catalytic activation of N-2, to the full electrochemical cell. Five critical questions are asked, discussed, and answered, each coupled with a summary of recent developments in the respective field. This article is not supposed to be a complete summary of recent research about NRR but provides a rather critical personal view on the field. It is the major aim to give an overview over crucial influences on different length scales to shine light on the sweet spots into which room for revolutionary instead of incremental improvements may exist. KW - N-2 reduction KW - ammonia synthesis KW - catalysis KW - catalysts KW - electrolytes Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/celc.201901970 SN - 2196-0216 VL - 7 IS - 4 SP - 878 EP - 889 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -