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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)).
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.
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.
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.
The growing energy demand of the modern economies leads to the increased consumption of fossil fuels in form of coal, oil, and natural gases, as the mains sources. The combustion of these carbon-based fossil fuels is inevitably producing greenhouse gases, especially CO2. Approaches to tackle the CO2 problem are to capture it from the combustion sources or directly from air, as well as to avoid CO2 production in energy consuming sources (e.g., in the refrigeration sector). In the former, relatively low CO2 concentrations and competitive adsorption of other gases is often leading to low CO2 capacities and selectivities. In both approaches, the interaction of gas molecules with porous materials plays a key role. Porous carbon materials possess unique properties including electric conductivity, tunable porosity, as well as thermal and chemical stability. Nevertheless, pristine carbon materials offer weak polarity and thus low CO2 affinity. This can be overcome by nitrogen doping, which enhances the affinity of carbon materials towards acidic or polar guest molecules (e.g., CO2, H2O, or NH3). In contrast to heteroatom-free materials, such carbon materials are in most cases “noble”, that is, they oxidize other matter rather than being oxidized due to the very positive working potential of their electrons. The challenging task here is to achieve homogenous distribution of significant nitrogen content with similar bonding motives throughout the carbon framework and a uniform pore size/distribution to maximize host-guest interactions. The aim of this thesis is the development of novel synthesis pathways towards nitrogen-doped nanoporous noble carbon materials with precise design on a molecular level and understanding of their structure-related performance in energy and environmental applications, namely gas adsorption and electrochemical energy storage.
A template-free synthesis approach towards nitrogen-doped noble microporous carbon materials with high pyrazinic nitrogen content and C2N-type stoichiometry was established via thermal condensation of a hexaazatriphenylene derivative. The materials exhibited high uptake of guest molecules, such as H2O and CO2 at low concentrations, as well as moderate CO2/N2 selectivities. In the following step, the CO2/N2 selectivity was enhanced towards molecular sieving of CO2 via kinetic size exclusion of N2. The precise control over the condensation degree, and thus, atomic construction and porosity of the resulting materials led to remarkable CO2/N2 selectivities, CO2 capacities, and heat of CO2 adsorption. The ultrahydrophilic nature of the pore walls and the narrow microporosity of these carbon materials served as ideal basis for the investigation of interface effects with more polar guest molecules than CO2, namely H2O and NH3.
H2O vapor physisorption measurements, as well as NH3-temperature programmed desorption and thermal response measurements showed exceptionally high affinity towards H2O vapor and NH3 gas. Another series of nitrogen-doped carbon materials was synthesized by direct condensation of a pyrazine-fused conjugated microporous polymer and their structure-related performance in electrochemical energy storage, namely as anode materials for sodium-ion battery, was investigated.
All in all, the findings in this thesis exemplify the value of molecularly designed nitrogen-doped carbon materials with remarkable heteroatom content implemented as well-defined structure motives. The simultaneous adjustment of the porosity renders these materials suitable candidates for fundamental studies about the interactions between nitrogen-doped carbon materials and different guest species.